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Hackers Steal $31 Million at Russia's Central Bank (cnn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the foiled-again dept.

The Bank of Russia has confirmed Friday that hackers have stolen 2 billion rubles ($31 million) from correspondent accounts at the Russian central bank. Central bank security executive Artiom Sychev said it could've been much worse as hackers tried to steal 5 billion rubles, but the central banking authority managed to stop them. CNNMoney reports: Hackers also targeted the private banks and stole cash from their clients, the central bank reported. The central bank did not say when the heist occurred or how hackers moved the funds. But so far, the attack bears some similarity to a recent string of heists that has targeted the worldwide financial system. Researchers at the cybersecurity firm Symantec have concluded that the global banking system has been under sustained attack from a sophisticated group -- dubbed "Lazarus" -- that has been linked to North Korea. But it's unclear who has attacked Russian banks this time around. Earlier Friday, the Russian government claimed it had foiled an attempt to erode public confidence in its financial system. Russian's top law enforcement agency, the FSB, said hackers were planning to use a collection of computer servers in the Netherlands to attack Russian banks. Typically, hackers use this kind of infrastructure to launch a "denial of service" attack, which disrupts websites and business operations by flooding a target with data. The FSB said hackers also planned to spread fake news about Russian banks, sending mass text messages and publishing stories on social media questioning their financial stability and licenses to operate.

37 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Please do something about the headline! by bogaboga · · Score: 1

    Hackers Steal $31 Million From at Russia's Central Bank

    Doesn't sound right, or does it?

    Emphasis mine.

    1. Re:Please do something about the headline! by BeauHD · · Score: 2

      Fixed; thanks for the heads up!

    2. Re:Please do something about the headline! by ketomax · · Score: 1

      In the motherland Bank steals from Hackers.

    3. Re: Please do something about the headline! by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Russia people rob bank!

  2. CNN = Fake News. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't trust anything from their site anymore. I'm going to see what RT has to say about this... Oh the irony!

    1. Re:CNN = Fake News. by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      "If you think that RT, the mouthpiece of Vladimir Putin, has more credibility than CNN, you are an idiot.

      Rufus the desert blogger UFO crank has more credibility than today's CNN.

  3. can't convince me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That this wasn't done by Putin. Call it a conspiracy theory but the guy is dirtier than dirt.

    And now he has a reason to invade the netherlands... or something suitably nasty.

    1. Re:can't convince me... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Wait?!? We have been doing this for the past 16 years are you fucking blind?!

  4. In other news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jill Stein's campaign announces a 27 million dollar donation for recounts in additional states.

    1. Re:In other news by skam240 · · Score: 2

      Please, it's not America's Left that has been getting help from Russia all this time. Far from it.

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    2. Re:In other news by skam240 · · Score: 1

      You're basically saying "the Left can't take a joke" and "the Left's jokes are too mean". Now I'm not commenting on the validity of your comments but do you not see the contridiction in what you're saying?

      --
      I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
    3. Re:In other news by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      "It's a joke. Laugh. Another nail in the coffin for the humorlessness of the Left "

      And sadly, it was not always thus. The left's main power source today is not those pinwheels and mirrors it keeps pushing, but the rapidly rotating corpses of Bruce, Sahl and Carlin.

  5. Why can't they roll it back? by drew_kime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Serious question: In Debt of Honor there was a hack directed against the NYSE. They rolled back all transactions for the day. In a bank hack no one took physical cash. If they can show the transactions were fraudulent, why can't they just reverse it?

    --
    Nope, no sig
    1. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

      Big difference between real world and Tom Clancy world. For reference, see every book he wrote.

    2. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 4, Informative

      In theory they could.

      The basic problem is that it's equivalent to the Russian government printing 2 billion rubles and handing it to the bank to replace a physical theft. There's still the matter of the stolen 2 billion rubles floating around out there. If you don't deal with that somehow, by tracing it down and freezing/deleting it (at which point you're effectively returning it), then all you've done is magically create 2 billion rubles.

      Needless to say, this can lead to some serious problems in the long run.

    3. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by Enigma2175 · · Score: 2

      Serious question: In Debt of Honor there was a hack directed against the NYSE. They rolled back all transactions for the day. In a bank hack no one took physical cash. If they can show the transactions were fraudulent, why can't they just reverse it?

      For some of it they did:

      Hackers tried to steal 5 billion rubles, but the central banking authority managed to stop them and redirect the funds, according to central bank security executive Artiom Sychev.
      "We were lucky to return some of money," said a central bank spokesperson.

      That's the transfers they were able to unwind. The other transfers went to non-cooperating banks, or more likely were broken up and bounced from bank to bank and one of the banks in the chain won't play ball.

      --

      Enigma

    4. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by Fire_Wraith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Inflation is the short answer, yes. There's a bit more to it though.

      The more detailed answer is that "money", whether it's physical bills/coins, bitcoins, or digits in an account on a computer, is just a proxy for real things - goods and services. Direct barter is pretty inefficient, in terms of time/effort/etc, so we abstract it with money. Now, while there's really no upper or lower bound on how much 'money' there is, there's a finite amount of physical goods and other productivity in the economy at a given time. Ideally, we'd have a perfect 1:1 ratio so that the amount of money flowing around matches the amount of physical goods/etc. In practice it's pretty difficult to actually do that to an exacting amount, so keeping it reasonably balanced is one of the primary responsibilities of a country's central bank, like the Fed.

      The economy is generally growing, which means more goods and services, which means more money is needed to keep pace. Inflation isn't inherently bad, not in small amounts. It's only when inflation goes high that it gets bad. More importantly, negative inflation (deflation) is really really bad, because in that situation, the economy grinds to a halt because nobody wants to spend money (because it'll be worth more tomorrow), and we get into a nasty cycle that's hard to break out of - one that usually requires a lot of inflationary pressure to counteract, such as printing money or a central bank injecting more funds like the Fed did. Otherwise, if the government isn't willing to do enough, you wind up like Japan with your economy stuck in neutral for a decade or two.

      So back to the question of reimbursement for bank theft losses - sure, you could probably absorb one or two of these without any real economic impact. The problem tends to come in the long run when you've established a policy of doing so, because it can quickly get out of control - try explaining why you'll reimburse Alice but not Bob for their losses.

    5. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 1

      > negative inflation (deflation) is really really bad, because in that situation, the economy grinds to a halt because nobody wants to spend money (because it'll be worth more tomorrow),

      This is a fallacy, because most people need to spend most of their income on immediate needs (food, mortgage/rent, utilities, car payments, gasoline, etc.). Therefore the economy will still function. For the people who have surplus income to invest, they already calculate a "real rate of return" by subtracting inflation from the nominal rate of return (i.e. measured in inflating currency). Thus if your stocks went up 2%, but inflation was also 2%, your real return is zero, because you can only buy the same amount of goods and services as the original investment could. If inflation was -2% (deflation) instead of +2%, it doesn't affect the method to calculate of real return, only the value you subtract. The market values of various investments would adjust to yield the same real return they do now. This is no different than what happened in past times when the inflation rate changed from one value to another.

      This discussion applies to *mild* deflation, on the order of a few percent per year. Rapid deflation and rapid inflation are both bad. We have an example of the first in India, where they are trying to suddenly withdraw large bills from circulation, disrupting the normal flow of funds. We have an example of the second in Venezuela, which is now probably classed as hyperinflation (>100%/year)

    6. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      They weren't able to roll back most of the transactions because they happened over the course of the year. From TFA:

      Editors note: This story has been updated to clarify that the losses cited from cyberattacks at Russia's central bank were for 2016, not a single attack.

    7. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by RhettLivingston · · Score: 1

      In Russia, a planned publicity stump costs exactly 2 Billion rubles because that is almost certainly exactly what this was.

    8. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by Agripa · · Score: 1

      Serious question: In Debt of Honor there was a hack directed against the NYSE. They rolled back all transactions for the day. In a bank hack no one took physical cash. If they can show the transactions were fraudulent, why can't they just reverse it?

      In Dept of Honor, only the transactions with US exchanges where both sides were recorded and could be changed were rolled back. External transactions were beyond their control.

    9. Re:Why can't they roll it back? by drew_kime · · Score: 1

      Thanks. Looks like other people were wondering the same thing.

      --
      Nope, no sig
  6. Poor hackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Dead men walking! Get a good last look at these hackers, here - they're dead men walking!

  7. No Fury by sexconker · · Score: 1, Funny

    Like HRC scorned.

    1. Re:No Fury by ISoldat53 · · Score: 1

      Tit meet Tat

  8. This would have never happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...if they were using bitcoin

  9. And so it begins.... by imadeyoureadpoop · · Score: 1

    Seems entirely relevant

    --
    Hanlon's Razor -- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
    1. Re: And so it begins.... by cavreader · · Score: 2

      "how can we even be talking about attacking another nation under the table"
      Nations have been attacking one another "under the table" since the dawn of civilization. Some are just better than others when it comes to gathering intelligence and running counter intelligence operations. And foreign intelligence operations are not unconstitutional. The key word being "foreign". The only rule when conducting foreign intelligence operations is don't get caught. That's why everyone's foreign embassies are staffed with intelligence officers who manage and conduct HUMINT operations against the host country. If something goes awry they are covered under diplomatic immunity.

  10. I think the First Internet War by Black+Parrot · · Score: 4, Interesting

    is on.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  11. I Guess Snowden Needed by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

    some spending money.

    Party On Ed!!

  12. Can't they trace where it went by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Serious question: Surely transferring money leaves audit trails? One account is debited while the other is credited.

    Does this not leave a record that can be traced?

  13. For the Bank of Russia it's not even pocket change by hey! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's just numbers on a spreadsheet. The Bank of Russia is Russia's central bank and there is literally no amount of money you can steal from a central bank that will harm it. That's because they're the people who issue the fiat in "fiat currency".

    The harm is to the economy as a whole, in the form of inflation. In this case we're talking about the release of thirty one million spurious extra bucks into a two trillion dollar economy. Just a tiny bit of inflation, diluted to homeopathic concentrations and applied to everyone who uses rubles.

    Of course the bank has to pursue this because it undermines confidence in the system, but this is as close to a victimless crime as any illegal way of obtaining thirty-one million dollars can be.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  14. Let me guess... by Nikkos · · Score: 2

    The Russians did it.

  15. Re:For the Bank of Russia it's not even pocket cha by hey! · · Score: 1

    I assume that thirty one million dollars in a two-trillion dollar economy won't be noticed by anyone -- except, obviously, the people enjoying it.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  16. A: Because it breaks the flow of a message by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

    Q: Why is starting a comment in the Subject: field incredibly irritating?

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  17. Begun by TeknoHog · · Score: 1

    the clown war has.

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  18. It's Not Like They Weren't Warned by Toad-san · · Score: 1

    Russia's been one of the biggest sources of hackers, Internet attacks, online fraud, credit card theft, and the like for years now, and they've done damn all about it.

    Serves the bastiges right.