November marks the one-year anniversary of one of the
largest and most complex cyber crimes in history. A network of international
criminals executed an attack on an American credit card processor that, in less
than 12 hours, saw more than 2,100 ATM machines vandalized in 280 different
cities across the globe. The thieves’ coordinated attack netted more than $9
million in stolen cash.
This month, after one year and an extensive international
investigation, the FBI is formally charging the four young men behind the incident.
According to an FBI,
Russian Viktor Pleshchuk, 28, Estonian Sergei Tsurikov, 25, and Moldovian Oleg
Covelin, 28, along with an anonymous fourth party dubbed “Hacker 3,” exploited
the computer network of RBS Worldpay, the U.S. payment processing center of the
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Using a sophisticated hack, the group altered the
security encryptions used by RBS to protect those employees who received
payroll on RBS debit cards. Cloned debit cards were then distributed worldwide
to provide access to the compromised accounts.
Four other individuals residing in Estonia have also had
charges brought against them for access device fraud. The total indictment
charges sixteen different counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud,
substantive wire fraud, conspiracy to commit computer fraud,
substantive computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
More information is available through the official FBI website.