Finance minister orders serious efforts to stop bank hacking

BANGKOK, Aug 1 (TNA) -- Financial institutions would have to plug their loopholes and prevent customers’ damage after the data of customers at Kasikornbank and Krungthai Bank had been hacked, Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong said. According to him, the Bank of Thailand sent a similar instruction to financial institutions in the wake of the recent hacking. Officials already investigated the issue and found that hacked data of customers had not been abused, Mr Apisak said. “The Finance Ministry wants financial institutions to look for possible loopholes and meet standards to guarantee customers’ confidence because the application of online systems is inevitable in today’s world,” the finance minister said. Ronadol Numnonda, Bank of Thailand’s assistant governor for supervision, said Kasikornbank and Krungthai Bank reported late last week that some data of customers that did not include their financial transactions were hacked. Kasikornbank lost the data that were actually public and available in general and most data hacked from Krungthai Bank concerned the loan requests of some small-scaled customers and corporate customers, Mr Ronadol said. Both banks quickly plugged their loopholes and there was no damage to their customers, he said. The Bank of Thailand ordered both banks to prepare compensation if customers’ damage occurs in the future. (TNA)