Top authorities from different countries, INTERPOL and EUROPOL are teaming up to uncover the details and in the hot pursuit for the criminals involved in the 'Worst Bank Hacking Crime in History." Almost a billion US dollars have been stolen from different financial institutions all over the world in just a span of two years.
The culprits behind this monumental cyber robbery were identified as the 'Carbanak Cyber Gang' that equips techniques drawn from an arsenal of targeted attacks, according to RawStory. They steal directly from the backs rather than posing as customers withdrawing from individual or company accounts. A hundred financial institutions were affected and has been a victim of these attacks.
Kaspersky Lab, the Russian security company working in this case explains, "Carbanak used carefully crafted emails to trick pre-selected employees into opening malicious software files, a technique known as spear phishing. They were able to get into the internal network and tack down administrator's computers for video surveillance."
They managed to learn how these employees work and then later on copied how and when these people perform their banking transactions. Some of the money that has been stolen from these institutions where deposited in different banks in China and the US.
The group also managed to get money from these institutions by changing the amount of money in an individual's account. If an account has $ 1,000 in it, they enter the system and input another 0 to the amount making it $ 10,000. The extra $ 9,000 is withdrawn and transferred to their accounts. The individual who owns the account fails to notice because the original amount in the account was never taken.
Carbanak also had managed to remotely control several ATM's all over the world. A member of the group is ready to take the money that is automatically dispensed in the ATM machines at a pre-set time determined by the hackers who have seized control over these machines.
No clarifications where given whether why these robberies were just identified just now. INTERPOL on the other hand works with Kaspersky Lab to identify new trends in cyber-crime in order to protect themselves and the public as a whole with these new evolving threats.
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