Hackers on Friday broke into Sinqia, a financial technology provider owned by Evertec, attempting to steal around 420 million reais ($77.4 million) from several Brazilian financial institutions including HSBC Holdings Plc’s local operations, O Globo reported.
Cyber criminals invaded Sinqia’s systems used by Brazilian financial institutions and attempted to make several transfers through a fast-growing electronic payments system known as Pix. Sinqia confirmed the attack but said there was no evidence of suspicious activity in any system besides Pix.
Sinqia is working to rebuild the affected systems with enhanced controls and will only put Pix back online pending a review from the central bank, it said in a statement on Saturday.
Hackers sought to divert around 380 million reais from HSBC, O Globo said, adding the Brazilian central bank managed to block 350 million reais from the attack. It did not say what happened to the rest.
HSBC confirmed the incident in a statement, saying “no customer accounts or funds were impacted by the operation and measures have been taken to block these transactions.”
This is not the first time Brazilian financial institutions have suffered such breaches. In July, hackers attacked C&M Software, siphoning hundreds of millions of reais.
Photograph: A person typing at a backlit computer keyboard arranged in Danbury, U.K., on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
Topics Cyber