The target: Postbank, the banking division of South Africa’s Post Office.
The take: $3.2 million USD
The attack vector: Rogue employees printed the bank’s ‘master key’, a 36 digit code which allows its users to decrypt the bank’s operations and modify security protocols, on a piece of paper from an old data center. Using this credential they were able to access customer accounts and execute more than 25,000 fraudulent transactions, stealing $3.2 million. In addition to the cash, the master key also gave the attackers access to ATM pins, home banking access codes, customer data and credit card information which could then be used for sophisticated phishing attacks.
This breach highlights the importance of privileged credential management and the cascading negative effects that can happen when a high level protocol is compromised.