New Report Says Computer Criminals Stole Millions From Banks 

Banks in Russia, U.S. and Eastern European may Have Lost $1 Billion, Report Says

A Russian-speaking gang of computer criminals has stolen millions of dollars since late 2013 from banks in Russia, Eastern Europe and the U.S., according to a report from Kaspersky Lab ZAO, a Russian computer-security firm.

It is unclear exactly how many, or which, banks were hit. Some U.S. financial-services executives have been briefed on the findings, people familiar with the briefings said. U.S. government officials were aware of the report Sunday, though some said they were skeptical about how much money may have been lost at U.S. banks. Kaspersky earlier briefed a computer-security trade group for U.S. banks, which didn’t immediately raise its “threat level,” a person familiar with the matter said.

The report offers one of the more detailed looks at how organized crime has evolved in the computer age. The thieves captured video of what was happening on bank computer screens to learn how to mimic the way bank employees access their systems. They hacked into computers that control ATMs so that they would dispense cash when criminals walked by. They were also able to move funds from one account to another, seemingly without being noticed.

The location of the hackers is unclear. Some of their servers are based in China and some of their Web domains appear to be registered to Chinese nationals, the report says. But, as Kaspersky notes, such clues can and have been faked in the past.

The U.S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. the New York Times earlier reported on Kaspersky’s findings.

The vast majority of victimized banks appear to be in Russia, according to the report. The firm’s researchers were able to access three of the hackers’ servers and found Internet Protocol addresses of apparent targets. Kaspersky found 178 such IP addresses linked to Russia on the servers and 37 linked to the U.S., according to the report. Each address may not be a different bank, or a bank that lost money.

The report says one bank lost $7.3 million to ATM fraud to the group and another lost $10 million to hackers exploiting its “online banking platform.” Kaspersky estimates cumulative losses could reach $1 billion.

Perhaps more concerning, the hackers in this case consistently used previously known security holes in Microsoft Corp. software, for which Microsoft had issued “patches,” to break into the banks. If the companies had updated their software, the hackers would have had to find another way in, the report said.

Kaspersky has tracked the group of criminals back to 2013 and said there is no indication they have gotten out of the bank-robbing business.

The Financial Services-Information Sharing and Analysis Center continues to investigate the report’s contents, people familiar with the matter said. Cybercriminal attacks against Western targets have been common but the shift to mostly Russian banks and their customers is new and raises questions about the hackers’ change in tactics, a threat intelligence industry expert said.

Source: WSJ – New Report Says Computer Criminals Stole Millions From Banks

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