Cyber security threats pose a greater danger today than they ever have as more systems are interconnected via the Internet. With governments employing cyber-weapons like Flame and Stuxnet along with rogue hacker groups like Anonymous, cyber-attacks are becoming all the more common. An attack to over 60 banks recently discover by McAfee, has been reported to be the largest cyber bank robbery in history. Sky News reports:
According to a joint report by software security firm McAfee and Guardian Analytics, more than 60 firms have suffered from what it has called an “insider level of understanding”.
“The fraudsters’ objective in these attacks is to siphon large amounts from high balance accounts, hence the name chosen for this research – Operation High Roller,” the report said.
The stolen money was then sent to so-called mule accounts in caches of a few hundreds and 100,000 euro (£80,000) at a time.
Credit unions, large multinational banks and regional banks have all been attacked.
“What they have done differently from routine attacks is that they have got into the bank servers and constructed software that is automated.
“It can get around some of the mechanisms that alert the banking system to abnormal activity.”
The details of the global fraud come just a day after the MI5 boss warned of the new cyber security threat to UK business.
