PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 16 (UPI) -- A new report finds that hackers carried out the largest bank heist in history, targeting 100 banks in 30 countries, including the United States, Japan and Russia.
The report, first circulated by the New York Times, said the amount stolen from banks is likely at least $300 million and possibly triple that. The hackers installed malware in banking systems over the past two years by putting it in emails sent to bank employees, and they accessed video surveillance and data on the habit of bank employees to get a sense of how the banks typically operated. Once they had that information, the hackers began making transactions using fake accounts and money transfers.
The hackers reportedly hit Russian banks most frequently, and the names of the banks involved have not been released. The hackers are being referred to as the "Carbanak cybergang," after the name of the discovered malware.
"The goal was to mimic their activities," Sergey Golovanov, who conducted the inquiry for Kaspersky Lab, told the Times. "That way, everything would look like a normal, everyday transaction."
Brazil, Canada, China, Germany and many others are included on the list of countries affected by the hack.
