It could be one of the largest bank heists to date. Hackers managed to get hundreds of millions of dollars from more than 100 banks in 30 countries. According to an upcoming report from Kaspersky Lab, the event could be “the most complex attack the world has seen to date.”
Kaspersky Lab's analysis, which will be published next Monday, was published in part by the New York Times. The cybersecurity firm was called in to investigate a cash heist from ATMs in Ukraine a year ago. But according to The Times, the ATMs were just the beginning:
“The bank’s internal computers, used by its employees who process daily transfers, had malware installed that allowed cybercriminals to record their every move. The malware lurked for months, sending back feeds of videos and images that gave the criminal group information about how the bank operated,” according to the researchers.
Once they had the necessary information, the hackers were able to impersonate bank employees, freely transferring money from banks in the US, Russia, Japan, and Switzerland (among others) to various international accounts. According to the report, the scale of this attack could make it “one of the largest bank robberies ever.”
And while cybercriminals managed to collect at least $300 million globally, Kaspersky Lab believes the total could be almost three times that.
So far, no names have been reported from the banks that were attacked, but the majority of them are apparently from Russia, Japan and the US. The hackers appear to have been making off with around $10 million a year and as the security firm reports, the hack is probably still ongoing.
And according to Kaspersky's report, it all started the same way every major breach starts with an email hack.
