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Hackers Steal $6.7M In Bank Cyber Heist

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-nearly-as-dramatic-as-a-regular-heist dept.

Orome1 writes "A perfectly planned and coordinated bank robbery was executed during the first three days of the new year in Johannesburg, and left the targeted South African Postbank — part of the nation's Post Office service — with a loss of some $6.7 million. The cyber gang behind the heist was obviously very well informed about the post office's IT systems, and began preparing the ground for the heist a few months before, by opening accounts in post offices across the country and compromising an employee computer in the Rustenburg Post Office."

8 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Summary is wrong by Smallpond · · Score: 4, Informative

    42m Rand is not 6.7m USD, it is more like 5.2m.

    1. Re:Summary is wrong by Formalin · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's Zimbabwe. SA, while experiencing considerable inflation in the 90's, is reasonably stable now, and no where near the level of inflation in zimbabwe.

      1 rand used to be worth around 1 USD, IIRC (apartheid era). inflation went up with political change, and by around 2000? it was 10 or so to a dollar, and is something like 6-7 these days. So 50-100% some years, less overall, which is bad... but not hyperinflation, where prices double in days or hours, instead of years (like in zimbabwe).

    2. Re:Summary is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      and is something like 6-7 these days

      1 U.S. dollar = 8.03322542 South African rands

      42 million South African rands = 5.228286 million U.S. dollars

      Good thing we're not on the internet, or it would look a little stupid to be making up numbers when there are perfectly good sources available.

    3. Re:Summary is wrong by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Informative

      Seriously though, for currency, other than USD?
          Not if they want people to know what the hell they're talking about.

      Have you ever been outside of the US? Or are you just talking out of your ass?

      In Canada we have a dollar ... the symbol is the standard '$' used by most places that have currency they call dollars. There is no other symbol on the keyboard, the way you differentiate is something like "$100 CDN" -- and within Canada, we don't even do that.

      If it wasn't SOPA protest blackout day, you could read a list of places, but this will pretty much show you what is used. Almost 30 countries besides the US express their currency with the $ sign.

      I'm afraid if you're claiming that only the US dollar is described using the $ sign you're completely mistaken ... because it's a pretty widespread symbol.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  2. Re:Surprised it took so long for somebody to do th by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm much more surprised by the fact that they managed to take about 1% of the entire assets of the wanna-be bank. That's pretty disturbing - because that means that nothing was working right. Not their security, not their required privileges, not their fraud detection, nothing. Note to self: don't do business in SA.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
  3. Re:And terrorists thank you for running windows by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.postbank.co.za
    And to back it up

    ....$telnet www.postbank.co.za 80
    Trying 165.8.13.24...
    Connected to www.postbank.co.za.
    Escape character is '^]'.
    GET / HTTP/1.0

    HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
    Content-Length: 1635
    Content-Type: text/html
    Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
    X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:35:38 GMT
    Connection: close


    The page cannot be found
    ....

    Anybody running windows on their website is highly likely running it inside.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  4. Hi Bonch / Overly Critical Guy! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This "shill" crap that has been flying around lately has to stop.

    such as Galestar, NicknameOne, and flurp

    Oh, please. It is obvious that this crapflood is from bonch (== Overly Critical Guy) who has a problem with Galestar, NicknameOne, flurp, and GreatBunzinni.

    bonch: The "shill" accusations flying around on Slashdot lately are getting out of control.
    Overly Critical Guy: This isn't bonch... Aren't you Galestar/NicknameOne/flurp who replies to all his posts?

    Overly Critical Guy: Hi, GreatBunzinni. How do I know it's you? ... This is not bonch.... Signed, NOT bonch

    "This isn't bonch"? Ha ha. BUSTED!

    bonch: Seamless experiences win out in the long term. We saw this when gaming moved from PCs to consoles in the 2000s, and it's happening now in the transition to the post-PC era.
    Overly Critical Guy: Seamless experiences always win out over time. We saw it when gaming shifted from PCs to consoles, and now the industry is shifting from desktops to mobile devices.

    Overly Critical Guy Android phones used to look like this
    bonch: Android used to look like this

    Overly Critical Guy: The keyboard looks exactly like Apple's flat keyboard, and the trackpad is the Magic Trackpad that Apple started offering a year or so ago
    bonch: The keyboard looks just like Apple's flat keyboard introduced a few years ago, the trackpad is a clone of the Apple Trackpad.

    bonch: A Slashdot employee recently told me that my comments generate more moderations than any he's ever seen. (yes, that is what happens when you mod your own troll posts up from multiple accounts.)

  5. Re:Surprised it took so long for somebody to do th by b0bby · · Score: 3, Informative

    It didn't:
    http://inaudit.com/audit/it-audit/online-theft-that-sucked-13m-from-financial-firm-in-florida-unmasked-9888/
    This was in Florida last year.