The Billion-Dollar Heist that shook Bangladesh

Directed by Daniel Gordon, Universal Studios released a cybercrime documentary titled 'Billion Dollar Heist' on 14 August. The documentary focuses on the brilliant yet malevolent bank heist of the Central Bank of Bangladesh in 2016 – which nearly left the country burdened with debilitating repercussions in its wake.  

While this documentary is anchored on the 2016 bank heist, it is also well-equipped with case studies of other cybercrimes, offering the viewers a comprehensive landscape of the risks and threats that lurk in the digital space. 
Imagine the banking system as a big digital castle, a place where we store our money under the impression that these treasured 'belongings' are safe and secured. However, the reality is that this castle of ours isn't really all that safe. At least not from cyber monsters. 

These monsters are cunning, wily hackers who want to sneak into the castle and steal our belongings. 

The problem is, the more we use computers and phones for banking, the more doors and windows we have in our castle that can be potentially infiltrated by said hackers. And if one part of the castle gets broken into, the other parts could also become weak. 

The 2016 Central Bank heist was so severe and so cleverly designed, it sent ripples across the world. The fact that a heist like this can be orchestrated let alone be executed was beyond the imagination of the industry experts.

'Billion Dollar Heist' is an apt and beautifully executed depiction of real events, presented in a simple form. And it is able to make anyone who watches, realise how cyber threats can be the modern weapon of destruction.

The documentary was very well chronologically organised with direct insights from cybersecurity experts. It is similar to National Geographic's 'Air Crash Investigation' series. If anyone remembers, that show was a combination of industry experts offering their insights about the investigation of a specific crash along with a dramatic depiction of the accident.

For the uninitiated, in 2016, a group of hackers targeted the Central Bank's SWIFT system, which is used to operate all the transactions going in and out of the country. Their goal was to steal and relocate around $1 billion, out of which they had succeeded in stealing $81 million.

The heist involved three countries and three different banks. Coordination in the planning was crucial. The Federal Reserve System of the United States was also their target. 

The hackers planned to attack the systems on holidays when there won't be anyone to oversee the SWIFT transactions. Conveniently enough for them, the weekends in these two countries varied, presenting the hackers with more time for executing their plans.

'Billion Dollar Heist' was formulated similarly but without dramatisation of the events. Instead, minimalistic cartoon art was used to represent certain aspects of the incident. But mostly it was various experts giving their accounts of the incident and how they were involved. And the incident involved more than just cybersecurity experts as it attracted journalists and financial analysts as well.

The documentary had a great deal of knowledge to impart. It wasn't just a bunch of people talking about boring stuff. Instead, all of these experts brought up how this plan took years to be formulated and executed and how even the slightest oversight, like clicking on a seemingly harmless email attachment resulted in something that brought Bangladesh very close to devastation.

The documentary touches on in some parts, and in other parts, amplifies how this particular heist was a culmination of various factors – and some of which were preventable. There were numerous errors made by nearly everyone involved and there were a lot of other things going on behind the curtains. 

There was not a single dull moment in the documentary. For anyone remotely interested to know how this heist of stupendous proportions came to be, this documentary does not disappoint. The speculation of the nitty-gritty of the heist, as shown in the documentary, is an incredible teaching moment. Especially at a time when the world's digital space is evolving at warp speed. 

The 84-minute-long documentary is not to be missed.