Hackers steal up to $1 billion from banks, security co. says

[thai tech]

Hackers steal up to $1 billion from banks, security co. says

NEW YORK (AP) — A hacking ring has stolen up to $1 billion from banks around the world in what would be one of the biggest banking breaches known, a cybersecurity firm says in a report scheduled to be delivered Monday.

The hackers have been active since at least the end of 2013 and infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries, according to Russian security company Kaspersky Lab.

After gaining access to banks’ computers through phishing schemes and other methods, they lurk for months to learn the banks’ systems, taking screen shots and even video of employees using their computers, the company says.

Once the hackers become familiar with the banks’ operations, they use that knowledge to steal money without raising suspicions, programming ATMs to dispense money at specific times or setting up fake accounts and transferring money into them, according to Kaspersky. The report is set to be presented Monday at a security conference in Cancun, Mexico. It was first reported by The New York Times.

Read more: http://tech.thaivisa.com/hackers-steal-1-billion-banks-security-co-says/4744/

[maisodni]

Everyone is quick to pillory Bitcoin, everytime some scam artist walks off with few million dollars worth of Bitcoins. Bitcoins were "invented" in 2008, the Bitcoin protocol was first published in 2009, and the first commercail purchase of anaything (a pizza) occurred in May 2010 - and Bitcoin first exceeded US $1 in value in 2011. So - at most - operators have had less than five years to figure out how to "get things right" with this digital crypto-technology.

Paper/"fiat" currencies have been around for about 600 years, and scams have been going on continually and prodigiously ever ssince - but no one sreams about national currencise being a scam.

"Paper money" had some growing pains, in its early days, as Marco Polo experienced first-hand:

http://youtu.be/NSwkGiZq6rU

Cheers,

MS

Edited February 16, 2015 by maisodni

[Pib]

The hackers probably used the money to buy bitcoins...then bitcoin began losing value or they got their bitcoins stole....then the hackers needed to steal more fiat currency to buy more bitcoins...a vicious cycle.

[UbonOz]

Crooks stealing from crooks.

[Berkshire]

Wow, what a profitable enterprise. The banks better get their collective acts together or there will be more where this came from.

[fletchsmile]

The favourite dish of Thai hackers is som tam... Now the thread has a tenuous link to Thailand

Cheers

Fletch