#unionbank hacking

Take for example the recent BDO hacking incident that happened last December 2021. It was perhaps one of the biggest incidents or widely publicized hacking incidents in the Philippine financial system (the closest we could think of was the involvement of RCBC in February 2016 where hackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank's account with the US Federal Reserve in New York). In essence, the strategy in this particular incident was like this -- identify hackable online bank accounts (in this case, BDO), transfer funds to an intermediary bank where you can siphon money to a fictitious or dummy bank account (in this case, UnionBank) and then use the collected funds to buy crypto-currency (in this case, Bitcoin). The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has announced that it is monitoring the surge of complaints of BDO customers regarding unauthorized transactions in their accounts and is in close coordination with the said bank, including UnionBank. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno tweeted that it is monitoring the surge of complaints posted on social media platforms and are now coordinating with BDO and UnionBank to ensure remedial measures are being undertaken, including reimbursement of affected consumers. Bloomberg also received an update from UnionBank President Edwin Bautista and said that the bank "will not hesitate to take legal action against individuals who use their accounts to facilitate criminal activities," and that it is also monitoring and collaborating with BDO. Read more in our articles including "Crypto has made hacking online banks more rewarding" and "BSP in coordination with BDO, UnionBank on hacking incident".