Daniel Gordon
Available to stream
ON 4 February 2016, after a year of using malware to scrutinise the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank, the country鈥檚 central bank, an international criminal group tried to steal $1 billion from it. The bank was a soft target, with no firewall and simple $10 electronic switches connecting it to the SWIFT global payment system used by more than 11,000 financial institutions globally.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the largest in the world, housed in one of the most secure buildings, with its own power plant, water supply and communications. But in 2016, it hadn鈥檛 thought to put in a hotline for its customers in case they had any emergencies. In an institution responsible for providing financial services to foreign central banks, international organisations and the US government, this proved to be, shall we say, embarrassing.
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What happened next is told in Billion Dollar Heist, a documentary that makes up for what it lacks in expensive locations with excellent comic-book graphics and terrific experts. An interview with investigative journalist Misha Glenny provides the narrative, while Reuters journalist Krishna Das guides us through the heist.
The criminals were trying to remove funds from an account held by Bangladesh Bank at the Federal Reserve Bank. Of the 35 financial transactions they attempted, the Federal Reserve Bank cleared five. This sent $101 million in two directions: $20 million to Sri Lanka (a spelling error raised a red flag, halting the transaction) and $81 million to the Philippines, where national banking laws meant the stolen funds couldn鈥檛 be frozen until a criminal case was lodged.
Most of the $81 million disappeared into the country鈥檚 casino industry (exempt from anti-money laundering laws) and is now presumably lost forever.
Requests for payment continued to pour in, totalling around $1 billion. By then, more by luck than good management, the fraud had been detected by Bangladesh Bank (not the hack, which took months to unpick).
Computer security expert Mikko Hypp枚nen and Eric Chien, technical director of software firm Symantec鈥檚 security technology and response division, explain the implications as the story unfolds.
It turns out that the Lazarus Group, bankrolled by the North Korean government, was to blame. In 2017, it went on to attack five Asian cryptocurrency exchanges and steal $571 million. Lazarus is one of 13 or so state-sponsored hacking groups, including APT 10 in China and Sandworm in Russia. If the cybercriminals just worked to get rich, that would be bad enough, but they are for hire, riding a boom created, we learn, by increasingly effective global sanctions. So, if the daylight world of diplomacy stops your bank accounts, you know who to call.
Billion Dollar Heist is directed by Daniel Gordon, whose The Game of Their Lives about the 1966 North Korea football team drew him into political territory. Here, he tells a complex story clearly. This is a caper movie, albeit with a big sting in the tale, preparing us for the world such heists are ushering in.
We are now awaiting an all-out cyberwar, due to Lazarus and other groups that the US state department has designated 鈥渁dvanced persistent threats鈥�. Everything from health services to transport, comms, finance and the apparatus of state are just one human error away from compromise, and annihilation.
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Simon Ings is a novelist and science writer. Follow him on聽Instagram @simon_ings
