Great Power Technology - #584 - Chapter 575 Hindsight

At this time, Intesa Sanpaolo was in chaos.

Just two hours ago, a large number of unaudited account information modification records appeared in their system, including even uninstructed fund transfers.

Anyone in the banking industry knows what this means.

It was clear that they had been severely attacked, but the problem was that the entire bank’s technical department had been mobilized, only to find that they could not even find the source of the attack.

Theoretically, if you want to invade a bank’s system, you must first apply for access from the outside in, but within these two hours, all access is safe and approved.

In other words, either the attacker disguised himself as a normal visitor who could not be identified at all, or the attack came directly from within.

In either case, Intesa Sanpaolo’s technical ceiling has been exceeded.

They were like the city of Troy that had been invaded by a Trojan horse, but could not find the invisible Trojan horse.

“How is the situation? Are instructions still being generated?”

A bank technology executive asked the technician in front of him.

“No, we have urgently cut off the network connection to the central server. There are currently no new attacks. This is good news, but it is also bad news.”

“I understand that the loss caused by a disconnection is immeasurable – but fortunately we have insurance, they should compensate, right?”

“Maybe some compensation will be given. Don’t expect them to be very kind. They will definitely lower the price when determining the damage.”

“But the bad news I’m telling you now is not that, but that this is a clear signal, evidence that we are under attack.”

“Obviously, the attack is carried out through the network. As long as we reconnect to the network, we will continue to be attacked. With the capabilities they have shown so far, they can even clear our accounts directly.”

“How is this possible! All our information is connected to the Swift system. To tamper with this data, they must crack the entire Swift system. Can anyone in this world do it?”

The tone of the executive was a bit unbelievable. He could indeed feel the seriousness of the situation, but he had been out of the technical field for too long and did not have an intuitive judgment.

He subconsciously felt that this time was just a provocation from a small group of hackers in a corner of the world who loved to show off their skills. They would not dare to attack the banking system directly, even if they could escape detection in a short time. As long as the state intervenes and social engineering methods are used on a large scale, they will not be able to escape for long.

Since this is the case, then the multiple encryption used by the Swift system is still a barrier for them.

RSA encryption, elliptical encryption. These technologies that have been used by humans for decades are still relevant today and still protect humanity’s most important assets, and it has never shown signs of being broken.

And now, his technicians actually say that they can break through the limitations of the SWIFT system and directly tamper with transaction data?

Seeing the questioning look on the executive’s face, the technician hesitated for a moment and replied:

“Well, maybe they won’t tamper with the account through Swift settlement, but I’m pretty sure they can make the balance shown in our system return to zero.”

“The damage caused by this is slightly lower than that of tampering with transactions, but it also requires extremely high costs to recover.”

“In short, we have been backed into a corner – and what’s even more difficult is that we don’t even know who is launching the attack and what their purpose is.”

“There is no way to start. All security personnel are currently on duty and the information has been reported to ICSPA. They will provide us with the necessary assistance.”

“But at present, it seems that all the work we have done is chasing an invisible and intangible ghost. There is no target, so the so-called king of network security methods will naturally fall into place.”

The executive frowned tightly. He was also a technician himself, so he could naturally understand the logic stated by the other party, but there was nothing he could do about it.

If you want to practice target shooting, you must at least have a target.

The problem now is like, 10,000 kilometers away, someone attacked our own side with a missile of unknown origin, but our own counterattack means only a few rifles.

Wanting to cause damage to the enemy is purely a dream.

It seems that when technology fails, social engineering can only be considered.

After thinking in silence for a moment, he said:

“You continue to try. I will contact other departments to hold an emergency meeting. If there is any latest progress, I will notify you immediately.”

“Understood.”

The technician nodded in reply, but in fact, he just regarded the executive’s words as a routine perfunctory.

However, it was completely different from what he thought. Only half an hour later, the bank management locked the direction of the attack.

This is not because of how powerful they are, but because from a top-level overall perspective, the clues left by the other party are too obvious – or in other words, the other party has no intention of hiding their identity at all.

Technically, they can do it perfectly, but logically, they don’t even bother to do the most basic cover-up.

There were only a few clues obtained by the executive.

Article 1: All accounts previously suspended or frozen due to pressure from one’s side have been unfrozen, and the banks involved have clearly replied that they have not unfrozen the accounts.

Second, the accounts targeted by the attack are all our own personnel stationed abroad, and the attack logic is almost the same as our previous freezes and restrictions.

Article 3: Before the attack, China had just learned that major foreign representatives of several countries were restricted.

Perhaps each clue alone may not explain the problem, but when it occurs together, everything becomes clear.

Those small countries that are restricted definitely do not have this ability, so the identity of the opponent is already obvious.

He is from China.

The Chinese launched their offensive in response to their own restrictions on bank transactions for personnel of small countries stationed abroad.

After finding the initiator, the problem was half solved, but another more important problem surfaced:

How did they do that?

The technical director suddenly remembered a series of details that he had noticed but did not pay attention to. After a moment of silence, he said:

“Everyone.”

“I have a very bad guess.”

“If this speculation is true, then the blow it will have on us will be devastating.”

Everyone’s eyes were focused on him. He took a deep breath and then said:

“The RSA encryption system on which the modern banking system relies has probably been broken.”