$45M ATM heist: Cyber Hack Nets Thieves Huge Pay Day

Epic 21st Century ATM Cyber Hack Nets Thieves $45 Million

In a move which authorities fear will inspire further attacks, a group of cyber-thieves coordinated an ATM heist that netted them $45 million. Now, it should be noted that what is ‘epic’ is how the money was stolen. The process of retrieving the money has not been quite as successful, and multiple arrests have been made with more are expected to follow. The theft involved a global network of hackers who hacked into databases at the Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates and the Bank of Muscat in Oman.

Specifically, the thieves tapped into the databases which hold cash reserves the banks used to fund prepaid debit cards. Once in the databases, the thieves eliminated limits on ATM withdraws and added their own access codes. Next, the thieves were able to use any card with a magnetic swipe including hotel room access cards and expired credit cards. Finally, the thieves employed global cells across the world to walk up to ATMs and withdraw money – ‘easy peasy’.

The ATM cells where deployed in Britain, Canada, Columbia, Egypt, Japan, Romania, Russia, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Arrests have followed with one cell being a group of men from the Dominican Republic living in Yonkers. The ring-leader was unexpectedly killed in the Dominican Republic last month in what is believed to have been an attempted robbery.

Source material:

hackers stole $45M in ’21st century bank heist,’ feds say
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/atm-hackers-stole-45m-in-21st-century-bank-heist-feds-say/#ixzz2SzVCnyoFhttp://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/05/09/atm-hackers-stole-45m-in-21st-century-bank-heist-feds-say/