$45m ATM Theft The Largest Ever Cyber Attack As Hackers Target ATM's Worldwide; Hacker Masterminds Still At-Large
Eight defendants have been charged in a $45m ATM theft that spanned the world and took just hours using fabricated ATM cards.
The federal prosecutors involved in the case say the idea and execution of the $45 million ATM theft was like movie plot.
Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said "This scheme was organized for months and planned down to the minute, reminiscent of the casino heist in 'Ocean's Eleven.'"
The actual $45m ATM theft started overseas and was made public when the contents of the indictment were unsealed on Thursday.
According to the Justice Department, the unnamed "hackers" precipitated the $45 ATM theft by stealing data from banks that was then encoded onto plastic cards. Those cards were then to crews in two dozen countries, who rapidly withdrew the $45 million.
Lynch said of one of the people tasked with withdrawing the money, "Surveillance photos show his backpack getting heavier and heavier as his efforts go on."
A credit card processor that handled prepaid debit card transactions for Rakbank in the United Arab Emirates was targeted, which led to the $45m ATM theft.
The hackers are still unknown to prosecutors, but they also targeted the Bank of Muscat in Oman, which was a processor that serviced prepaid Mastercard debit cards.
The New York cell alone, grabbed $3 million of the $45 million ATM theft. According to Justice Department, "In 25 minutes, the defendants and their co-conspirators conducted approximately 750 fraudulent transactions totaling nearly $400,000 at more than 140 different cash machines."
Law enforcement officials in Canada, Japan, the United States, Romanic and Germany as well as 12 other countries are involved in the on-going investigation.
At press time, the hackers behind the scheme were still unknown, but eight defendants who were extracting the money from ATM's have been placed under arrest for the $45m ATM theft.