Hackers on Friday broke into Sinqia, a financial technology provi
der owned by Evertec, attempting to steal around 420 million reais ($77.
4 million) from several B
razilian financial institutions including HSBC Holdings Plc’s local o
perations, O Globo reported.
Cyber criminals invaded Sinqia’s systems used by Brazilian financial
institutions and atte
mpted 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 s
uspicious activity in any system besides Pix.
Sinqia is working to rebuild the affected systems with enhanced con
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trols and will only put Pix back online pending a review from the centra
l bank, it said in a statement on Saturday.
Hackers sought to divert around 380 million reais from HSBC, O Gl
obo 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 cust
omer accounts or fund
s were impacted by the operation and measures have been taken to bl
ock these transactions.”
This is not the first time Brazilian financial institutions hav
e suffered such breaches. In July, hackers attacked C&M Software
, siphoning hundreds of millions of reais.
Photograph: A person typing at a backlit computer keyboa
rd arranged in Danbury, U.
K., on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2020. Photo credit: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg