Up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide have been attacked in a large-scale cyber robbery.
Computer security firm Kaspersky Lab estimates £648m has been stolen in on-going cyber attacks which they say began in 2013.A cybercriminal gang with members from Russia, Ukraine and China is responsible.
The gang responsible, whom Kaspersky have dubbed “Carbanak”, used computer viruses to infect company networks . The cybercriminals would gain entry to an employee’s system through a process known as “spear phishing”, where they would send an email which appeared to come from a trusted source. When the email was opened, the malware would infect their system allowing the hacker to jump into the bank’s network. The malware included screen capture technology allowing them to see and record everything that happened on staff’s computer monitors.
Once they were ready to strike, they were able to impersonate bank staff online in order to transfer millions of pounds into dummy accounts , or even able to tell cash machines to dispense cash at a pre-determined time of day.
Kaspersky said on average each bank robbery took between two and four months, with up to £7 million stolen each time. A source in Kaspersky says the robberies were well planned and very professional.
