Hacker attack at Sumitomo UK bank fails to fetch 423mio USD

[Feher Tamas <etomcat () freemail hu>]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4356661.stm

London police foil huge on-line bank raid
by BBC News, 17 Mar 2005

Police in London say they have foiled one of the biggest
attempted bank thefts in Britain.

The plan was to steal £220m ($423m) from the London offices
of the Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui.

Computer experts are believed to have tried to transfer the
money electronically after hacking into the bank's systems.

A man has been arrested by police in Israel after the plot
was uncovered by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.

Unit members worked closely with Israeli police.

The investigation was started last October after it was
discovered that computer hackers had gained access to
Sumitomo Mitsui bank's computer system in London.

They managed to infiltrate the system with keylogging
software that would have enabled them to track every button
pressed on computer keyboards.

Cyber warning

> From that they could learn account numbers, passwords and
other sensitive information.

Yeron Bolondi, 32, was seized in Israel after an attempt to
transfer £13.9m into an account there.   He has been charged
with money laundering and deception, but police say their
investigation is continuing. His relationship with the gang
who tried to break into the network is unknown.

They have issued a warning for banks and businesses to watch
out for cyber criminals.

The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit was launched in April 2001
with responsibility for tracking down the growing range of
criminals who operate in cyberspace.

Takashi Morita, head of communications at Sumitomo Mitsui in
Tokyo, said the company had not suffered any financial loss
as a consequence of the robbery attempt.

He said: "The case is still in the middle of investigation
so we cannot comment further.

"We have undertaken various measures in terms of security
and we have not suffered any financial damage."
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