IT watchdog investigating breach in ATM heist

The government's cyber watchdog is looking into how the computer systems of two companies were breached in a sophisticated global ATM heist that saw $45 million stolen from two banks in the Middle East.

EnStage Inc, which operates from Bangalore, and ElectraCard Services, which is based in Pune, processed card payments for the two banks that were hit in the theft, according to several people familiar with the situation.

"We are investigating the technical aspect," Gulshan Rai, director general of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), part of the department of electronics and information technology, told Reuters by phone on Sunday.

"What kind of breach has happened in the system, how did it happen, what processes are in place, and the entire technical aspect we will look at," he said.

He said the agency started its investigation on Saturday.