Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Omani forensic specialists helped track down online crooks who stole $39 million from a government bank, the director of the Internet Technology Agency has revealed.
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A cyber attack on an Oman bank in 2013 sparked a global manhunt across 24 nations that led to the arrests of seven people in the USA, according to Dr Badr Al Manthari, director of the ITA.
Omani forensic specialists from the Internet Technology Agency worked with global counterparts to track down the scamsters, Al Manthari said, in an exclusive interview with TimesTV.
“Twelve pre-paid credit cards were compromised, the hackers managed to alter the withdrawal limits on the credit cards. And within a matter of a few hours, they managed to conduct more than 36,000 transactions and they managed to steal $39m from that particular bank and another bank in the Gulf. That was in 2013.
“At least seven have been caught in the US. It was an organised crime with many people involved from at least 24 countries. Cross-border cybercrimes are the most difficult to tackle. There is a legal framework. We are trying to tackle it through many means. One of them is international cooperation, where we are working very closely with our neighbours and other countries in the world to share experiences and information and even report incidents and also receive incidents. If they discover anything, they report it to us. So we are playing an active role there”, he said.
In the wake of that 2013 attack, banks have been cooperating with the authorities to ensure their security systems are up to date and protocols are now much tighter, he added.
“Nobody can say that any system can be hack-proof,” he revealed. “Our intention in Oman is to prevent cybercrimes as much as possible and also to be able to detect any cyber incidents or cyber crimes when they happen and be able to respond to them or recover from them as fast as possible”. He added, “I am aware that banks are working very closely with the regulator, Central Bank of Oman, to improve cyber security and they have taken very good measures to protect customer data”.
Speaking about individual scammers who try to extort money through phone calls etc -“There is currently an awareness campaign regarding only this particular kind of cyber crime that is being conducted by the TRA,” added Al Manthari, who had a message for residents: “Individuals can report these kinds of crimes to the Royal Oman Police and we are also working with the TRA to raise the awareness levels. The best protection is by raising the level of awareness. Technology has made it easy for hackers and criminals to conduct different kinds of cyber crimes. They can do these even remotely from outside and almost for free. There are so many tools that are available that enable them to do all of this and hide their identity very easily” .”
With ransomware attacks by rogue programmes such as WannaCry and Petya raising global alarm bells as they crippled systems across the world – though Oman was largely unaffected – Al Manthari also warned people to be on the lookout for any suspicious-looking links or emails that they come across.
“Ransomware like Petya and WannaCry had a huge worldwide campaign, but we deal with ransomware infections on a regular basis,” he said. “We must follow basic security practices, and educate ourselves when we are online. Always upgrade your operating systems and antivirus.
“Be careful when clicking on unknown sources,” warned Al Manthari. “I recently saw a study which says over 90% of malware comes from unknown links. As users, we must be careful and look for unusual content. For example, if you see an email from a friend that normally writes in Arabic, but is now writing in English, be careful. Look out for spelling mistakes as well, because that is another sign.”
With cybersecurity being a leading concern in the digital age, Al Manthari also stressed the need to recruit and train more tech-savvy professionals.
“There is a lack of about one million cybersecurity professionals worldwide, and this is expected to double in future,” he said. “We in Oman are currently working on a database to catalogue the cybersecurity professionals who work in the country.
“We also plan on having training programmes, online courses and on the job training for the cybersecurity professionals who work in Oman,” he added. “Bank heists and internet fraud are on the rise, and the best prevention in this case is to awareness.”
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