An investigation by Metropolitan Police Central eCrime Unit has resulted in the jailing of 13 people involved in cyber-gang that executed a sophisticated banking fraud using malware to steal millions of pounds from hundreds of people.
The cyber-crime ring is accused of using Trojans to infect PCs and stealing sensitive information, including bank account numbers and log-in credentials, the eCrime Unit said. The criminals allegedly used the stolen information to access victims’ bank accounts and transfer money to accounts under their control to the tune of at least £2.9 million.
The investigation, code-named Operation Lath, involved various British law enforcement authorities, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice. British police had originally arrested 20 people at various locations in London and southeast England suspected of having ties to the cyber-gang. Investigators from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) made additional arrests. Of the people arrested, 13 were jailed on 31 October.
During house searches, police recovered computers, mobile phones, banking documents and false passports. While the total amount stolen is not yet known, authorities estimated that the 13 people in jail were responsible for stealing at least £2.9 million between September 2009 and March 2010. The gang had attempted to steal £4.3 million pounds, the police said.
The gang was led by two Ukranians, Yevhen Kulibaba and Yuriy Konovalenko, the police said. Both men pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to defraud” and were sentenced to serve four years and eight months in prison.
The police did not provide any information on how the malware was spread to infect victims’ computers. It is not clear at this time if this cyber-gang used Zeus, one of the most sophisticated and popular banking Trojans in circulation, or different data-stealing malware.
Zeus became widespread in early 2009 and has since infected millions of computers around the world and been used to steal tens of millions of dollars from victims’ bank accounts. A little over a year ago, international law enforcement authorities arrested several people accused of using Zeus to loot bank accounts. Scotland Yard arrested 19 people accused of stealing $9.5 million from banks, the FBI charged 37 individuals of stealing $3 million and Ukranian police arrested five people accused of stealing more than $70 million.
While Zeus attacks have declined in recent months, it appears that the Trojan had changed its attack vector to exploit the auto-run feature in unpatched Windows systems and was making a comeback, according to a post on Microsoft’s Threat Research and Response blog.
Google's dominance of online search is being challenged, after OpenAI unveiled a search prototype tool…
One week after the world's largest IT outage, the head of CrowdStrike says nearly all…
Conflict of interest? Elon Musk to talk with Tesla board about making $5 billion Tesla…
Engineers at Amazon's chip lab in Austin, Texas, are racing ahead to develop cheaper AI…
China woes. Apple's China smartphone shipments decline during the second quarter, dropping it down into…
Oversight Board orders Meta to clarify rules over sexually explicit AI-generated images, after two fake…
View Comments
Oh my goodness! Awesome article dude! Many thanks,
However I am encountering problems with your RSS.
I don't know the reason why I can't join it. Is there anybody having identical
RSS issues? Anyone that knows the answer will you kindly respond?
Thanx!!