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Russians Aided Turkish Bank Hackers
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-02-16
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Computers instead of handguns were the weapons of choice of Turkish hackers who stole $300,000 from online banking customers, with the help of three Russians who sold them login data.
Police made seventeen arrests in the Turkish city of Ismir as they rounded up a cybergang of bank robbers. Thanks to the Russian masterminds who backed them, the gang was able to steal money by logging in to legitimate accounts as the accountholders.
The Russians demanded a ten percent cut of the proceeds, according to security firm Sophos. Through the use of spyware, they were able to obtain usernames and passwords for the gang to use.
That spyware effort was a far reaching one. The Turkish publication Sabah said the Russians sent their malware to a million email accounts.
In January, hundreds of people began filing complaints of unauthorized withdrawals taking place from their accounts. That led to the investigation that became one of Turkey's biggest into computer crime.
Although the three Russians were not identified in reports, it has been noted that their names have been shared with Interpol. The organization facilitates cooperation between law enforcement agencies in international operations.
Whatever measures that have been taken by countries like the United States to pressure Russia into more aggressive law enforcement against malware creators either haven't been effective, or have been ignored. Sophos said more than four percent of the world's malware authored last year came from Russia.
More careful practices by computer users would help as well. Ignoring unsolicited emails with various scam come-ons, and maintaining security software to fight threats would help limit the impact of such malware.
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Tags: Turkey, Online, Bank, Hackers
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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