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The Biggest Digital Heist in History Isn't Over Yet (bloomberg.com)

There are cyberheists, and then there's Carbanak, a cybercriminal gang that has stolen about $1.2 billion from more than 100 banks in 40 nations. The suspected 34-year-old ringleader is under arrest, but the whopping $1.2 billion amount remains missing. And to add insult to the injury, the malware attacks live on. Bloomberg Businessweek has an insightful story on this, which includes comments from none other than Europol itself, on the chase to catch Carabanak which has lasted for three years. Some excerpts from the story: Before WannaCry, before the Sony Pictures hack, and before the breaches that opened up Equifax and Yahoo!, there was a nasty bit of malware known as Carbanak. Unlike those spectacular attacks, this malware wasn't created by people interested in paralyzing institutions for ransom, publishing embarrassing emails, or taking personal data. The Carbanak guys just wanted loot, and lots of it.

Since late 2013, this band of cybercriminals has penetrated the digital inner sanctums of more than 100 banks in 40 nations, including Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S., and stolen about $1.2 billion, according to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency. The string of thefts, collectively dubbed Carbanak -- a mashup of a hacking program and the word "bank" -- is believed to be the biggest digital bank heist ever. In a series of exclusive interviews with Bloomberg Businessweek, law enforcement officials and computer-crime experts provided revelations about their three-year pursuit of the gang and the mechanics of a caper that's become the stuff of legend in the digital underworld.

Besides forcing ATMs to cough up money, the thieves inflated account balances and shuttled millions of dollars around the globe. Deploying the same espionage methods used by intelligence agencies, they appropriated the identities of network administrators and executives and plumbed files for sensitive information about security and account management practices. The gang operated through remotely accessed computers and hid their tracks in a sea of internet addresses.

65 comments

  1. Waiting for the movie! by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2

    Wow. So, who will be playing Carbanak in the movie? Brad Pitt?

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re:Waiting for the movie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Given she's asian, that would be a weird choice.

    2. Re: Waiting for the movie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, that would be almost as weird as casting Tom Cruise as the lead in a samurai movie.

    3. Re: Waiting for the movie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tom Cruise is as samurai as any "asian" anyway, which is a strange term that has no actual meaning - and Scientology is at least as "asian" as tiger moms, both being social control religions based on repression. It fits well.

    4. Re:Waiting for the movie! by mrclevesque · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Given she's asian..."

      He's Ukrainian:

      "For years police and banking-industry sleuths doubted they’d ever catch the phantoms behind Carbanak. Then, in March, the Spanish National Police arrested Ukrainian citizen Denis Katana in the Mediterranean port city of Alicante. The authorities have held him since then on suspicion of being the brains of the operation. Katana’s lawyer, Jose Esteve Villaescusa, declined to comment, and his client’s alleged confederates couldn’t be reached for comment. While Katana hasn’t been charged with a crime, Spanish detectives say financial information, emails, and other data trails show he was the architect of a conspiracy that spanned three continents. And there are signs that the Carbanak gang is far from finished."

      Explanation behind ongoing heist:

      "Someone had sent emails to the bank’s employees with Microsoft Word attachments, purporting to be from suppliers such as ATM manufacturers. It was a classic spear-phishing gambit. When opened, the attachments downloaded a piece of malicious code based on Carberp, a so-called Trojan that unlocked a secret backdoor to the bank’s network. The malware siphoned confidential data from bank employees and relayed the information to a server the hackers controlled. Delving deeper, the Kaspersky team found that intruders were taking control of the cameras on hundreds of PCs inside the organization, capturing screenshots and recording keystrokes. Soon, the researchers learned that other banks in Russia and Ukraine had been hacked the same way."

      -https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-25/the-biggest-digital-heist-in-history-isn-t-over-yet

    5. Re:Waiting for the movie! by Sir+Lurkalot · · Score: 1

      Tom Sellick

    6. Re:Waiting for the movie! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Given she's asian..."

      He's Ukrainian:

      "For years police and banking-industry sleuths doubted they’d ever catch the phantoms behind Carbanak. Then, in March, the Spanish National Police arrested Ukrainian citizen Denis Katana in the Mediterranean port city of Alicante. The authorities have held him since then on suspicion of being the brains of the operation. Katana’s lawyer, Jose Esteve Villaescusa, declined to comment, and his client’s alleged confederates couldn’t be reached for comment. While Katana hasn’t been charged with a crime, Spanish detectives say financial information, emails, and other data trails show he was the architect of a conspiracy that spanned three continents. And there are signs that the Carbanak gang is far from finished."

      Explanation behind ongoing heist:

      "Someone had sent emails to the bank’s employees with Microsoft Word attachments, purporting to be from suppliers such as ATM manufacturers. It was a classic spear-phishing gambit. When opened, the attachments downloaded a piece of malicious code based on Carberp, a so-called Trojan that unlocked a secret backdoor to the bank’s network. The malware siphoned confidential data from bank employees and relayed the information to a server the hackers controlled. Delving deeper, the Kaspersky team found that intruders were taking control of the cameras on hundreds of PCs inside the organization, capturing screenshots and recording keystrokes. Soon, the researchers learned that other banks in Russia and Ukraine had been hacked the same way."

      -https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-25/the-biggest-digital-heist-in-history-isn-t-over-yet

      so we're supposed to believe kaspersky evidence when it fits the narrative?

      fishy.

    7. Re:Waiting for the movie! by Shimbo · · Score: 2

      Given she's asian, that would be a weird choice.

      So, Scarlett Johansson then.

  2. Thanks NSA! by bferrell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You really protected us from the bad guys by building these tools and NOT plugging the holes they use

    1. Re:Thanks NSA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey little pud'n- Is her not feeling like himself today? Sounds like someone forgot zher pussy hat at Starbucks.

    2. Re:Thanks NSA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mueller is reportedly sitting on evidence of Democrat party wrongdoing during the 2016 campaign. Be careful of what you wish for here.

    3. Re:Thanks NSA! by St.Creed · · Score: 1

      I wish that it all gets out in the open.

      And also, popcorn. Lots of it. I think I'll be needing it.

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    4. Re: Thanks NSA! by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 0

      This says quite a bit about you. Sadly I believe it is true that most Trump supporters that will not want the truth to come to light when it finally does. I assure you those of us who are not fans want to know about *any* corruption regardless of the perpetrators political affiliation.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    5. Re: Thanks NSA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the truth about the democrats hiring people to go to trump rallies and start fights to make trump supporters look like they were the ones starting shit. which fit the narrative of trump=bad so trump supporters=bad and nazi=bad so trump supporters=nazis.

    6. Re: Thanks NSA! by Bodhammer · · Score: 1
      --
      "I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
  3. it r de haxx0rz! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    dey b haxx0rin!

    and msmash still not 1337.

  4. Re:You mean when Russia hacked voting equipment? by war4peace · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'd like to steal one US citizenship for a day and vote Trump (who I dislike) just to piss this annoying fella off.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  5. Re:You mean when Russia hacked voting equipment? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MY POST is a symptom of the retardification of America...

    FTFY

  6. Scapegoat arrested. Cops incompetent. Duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No surprise there. This is not the movies. Arrests are mostly about it *looking* like the cops are in power and the good guys, while in reality, they are the most incompetent gang in town for their fighting mass.

    They arrested a scapegoat because their bosses (the banks) told them to. Now they have egg on their faces.

    Cue the hunt for ... a better scapegoat!

    1. Re: Scapegoat arrested. Cops incompetent. Duh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh noes, the banksters got robbed! I think I wannacry about it... but not really.

  7. Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biggest digital heist was when the banks took billions in public money to bail themselves out in 2008.

    Can you heist a heist?

  8. It's all pretend anyway by lars5 · · Score: 1

    Since all this "money" is just pretend and not backed by anything with intrinsic value, why not just pretend it didn't happen? Set the balances back to where they were before the digital "theft" and call it good.

    Any banks that got some magical, ridiculously high deposits from out of the blue, well, you're S.O.L.

    --
    Don't Panic.
    1. Re:It's all pretend anyway by michelcolman · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'm wondering why it's so hard to get the money back. Of course, if they take it out of an ATM, it's gone. But I don't suppose they took 1.2 billion out of ATMs. So most of it just went from bank account to bank account to bank account. How hard can it be to trace?

    2. Re:It's all pretend anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How hard can it be to trace?

      Probably hard enough, especially if/when it's filtered through less cooperative banking institutions in nations such as Switzerland, Iran, Colombia, Argentina...

    3. Re:It's all pretend anyway by St.Creed · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Extremely hard, actually.

      Case in point, the heist of the Bangladesh Central Bank. They laundered that money through the casino's in the Philippines, who didn't track the money as well as they should have. So you enter with money, buy chips, lose a bit and then move your chips to your pal. He cashes out and now he has legit money.

      They did catch the money mules, but they were very unwilling to talk. Later they discovered it was probably North Korea doing the robbing, so that was understandable. The money will never be recovered.

      --
      Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
    4. Re:It's all pretend anyway by Agripa · · Score: 1

      Actually, I'm wondering why it's so hard to get the money back. Of course, if they take it out of an ATM, it's gone. But I don't suppose they took 1.2 billion out of ATMs. So most of it just went from bank account to bank account to bank account. How hard can it be to trace?

      They hire mules and send them forged ATM cards who then extract the money as cash and send it back for a percentage.

  9. Re:cerrajeros economicos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you another bot that spews jibberish or did your mother drop you on your head so that you can't speak proper English?

  10. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biggest digital heist was when the banks took billions in public money to bail themselves out in 2008.

    Actually the heist which immediately preceded that ... packaging junk debt as AAA and selling it to other people.

    Essentially some greedy American assholes stole billions of dollars from the entire fucking world.

    The banks got bailed out, the people around the world who got conned into buying garbage American debt, not so much.

    How the people who rated that debt AAA didn't end up in prison, I have no idea. Because there is no way they didn't know they were part of a scam.

  11. But will we know a heist when we see it? by greenwow · · Score: 2

    A primary concern is ensuring the science is strong enough to distinguish a normal transaction from a transaction masquerading as one.

  12. Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 2

    ...then, in March, the Spanish National Police arrested Ukrainian citizen Denis Katana...

    Wait... he's named katana?! Really?

    No way. That has got to be a pseudonym.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
    1. Re: Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems to be an existing family name.

    2. Re:Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by PPH · · Score: 1

      That has got to be a pseudonym.

      Of course. His real name is Weaboo.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    3. Re:Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by Bryansix · · Score: 2

      He should have named himself Daikatana and drawn up false birth certificates showing his father to be John Romero.

    4. Re:Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by jpaine619 · · Score: 1

      Right... Because the word Katana, in Ukrainian, means the same thing as it does in Japanese....

      Get out of the basement..

    5. Re:Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, "Katana" is a Chinese word. ...the more you know!

      CAP == 'slashing'

    6. Re:Katana [Re:Waiting for the movie!] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's actually a last name in europe and africa ...

      http://forebears.io/surnames/katana

  13. I dunno about this article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They say they are criminals, but they sound more like heroes tbh

  14. Re:You mean when Russia hacked voting equipment? by St.Creed · · Score: 3, Funny

    They mean social engineering... duh.

    But it sounds way better when they call it "espionage methods used by intelligence agencies" instead of "abusive communication methods used daily by banking employees to sell you loans you don't need".

    --
    Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  15. Kaspersky discovered this? by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

    Whose great idea was it again to declare these as Russian spies in USA and EU without proof, and to stop working with them?

    1. Re:Kaspersky discovered this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whose great idea was it again to declare these as Russian spies in USA and EU without proof, and to stop working with them?

      The members of carbanak that are in the CIA,FBI,and other government departments. See which ones appear to have a little extra above their income

  16. If the crooks were stupid by raymorris · · Score: 2

    > But I don't suppose they took 1.2 billion out of ATMs. So most of it just went from bank account to bank account to bank account. How hard can it be to trace?

    If the crooks were stupid, they would have transferred it from the victim bank into the crook's personal Wells Fargo account, and left it there. The crooks weren't stupid.

    The move it around through several countries right away, then use burner accounts in whichever countries to buy goods, things like laptops, gold, diamonds, etc. Move the diamonds, laptops, gold, whatever to another country where the government officials are part of a fencing operation, etc.

    1. Re:If the crooks were stupid by Peter+P+Peters · · Score: 1

      If the crooks were stupid, they would have transferred it from the victim bank into the crook's personal Wells Fargo account, and left it there. The crooks weren't stupid.

      I used to work in a bank and even if you put it in your own account it would take a lot of time and effort including a court order to get it back.
      Banks are in the business of protecting their customer's money, even if their customer is a crook.

      The move it around through several countries right away, then use burner accounts in whichever countries to buy goods, things like laptops, gold, diamonds, etc. Move the diamonds, laptops, gold, whatever to another country where the government officials are part of a fencing operation, etc.

      Casinos are the easy option. Transfer to a foreign bank, withdraw the cash and buy chips, lose a little to wash it, come out with clean money. We had a case here where one guy washed $90M at the local casino and no-one batted an eyelid until it was too late.

  17. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by jpaine619 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The banks were greedy, but they weren't alone. The ratings agencies should have been fined/jailed as well. They LIED about the quality of the bonds (at the bank's behest) and participated in the scam.

    Fraud is fraud is fraud.

  18. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The biggest digital heist was when the banks took billions in public money to bail themselves out in 2008.

    Can you heist a heist?

    Most (all?) of the banks were _forced_ to take money - http://archive.boston.com/business/articles/2009/05/15/first_nine_banks_were_forced_to_take_bailouts/

    The American federal government both caused and then covered up the reasons for the 2008 meltdown.

  19. Re:cerrajeros economicos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    servicio veloz y eficiente ... tu casa por menos dinero

    It has to be a restaurant ad bot.

  20. Re:cerrajeros economicos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sí...

    CAP === 'softball'

  21. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How the people who rated that debt AAA didn't end up in prison, I have no idea.

    Please! don't be so naive! Those people are untouchable. They could burn down the entire House (and Senate). However, if the voters ever decide to throw out the garbage, that could all change. Don't hold your breath.

  22. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    However, if the voters ever decide to throw out the garbage, that could all change.

    Who, exactly, do you think they're going to vote IN in exchange? Who's running who's not already affiliated with the system, and isn't such a total whackadoodle that someone might consider them? Can't be more than 1% of candidates. There's never enough choice, and the only ones able to change the system are the ones who are already in it.

  23. Band of cybercriminals penetrated bank digital san by najajomo · · Score: 1

    By any chance did the inner sanctums of these banks run on Microsoft Windows?

  24. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Then we have draft people for public service, through a lottery. It would be a definite improvement over what we are doing now. Majority rule has hit the brick wall.

  25. Easy solution.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Catch em? Bullet straight to their heads if they refuse to give up verifiable information on their compatriots.

  26. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like the idea, but there are several road-blocks. You are forced into public service with a pay either larger or smaller then your previous job. The previous job may or may not be there after your service is complete. Being a business owner, your company may go under. Existing issues will still exist such as government paid-for-life healthcare, payola from corporate lobbyists, bad laws due to incompetence, poorly written laws, etc.

    Besides, this is way off-topic.

  27. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Simple solution: you get the lottery winnings from Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery when your term is up. X^D

    p.s. Read the story, or at least skim the wiki entry if you aren't already aware of what the winner gets.

  28. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is why I don't bother investing in anything. Too much fraud.

  29. Re:Actually the 2nd biggest digital heist in histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Besides, this is way off-topic.

    Not at all. The same 'thin blue line' that protects crooked cops applies to politicians and their cronies as well. If you want to fix the banking system, you have to vote for people that will regulate it properly. And you have to watch over them.