$2.5 billion taken from world banks: OPERATION HIGH ROLLER

In a recent report by McAfee and Guardian Analytics, it was found that a highly sophisticated and reoccurring cyber-attack has taken as much as $2.5 billion from bank accounts around Colombia, Europe and the U.S.A.


The report states that the organized criminal who deal with the malware have attempted to take $78 million  from accounts at 60 or more institutions, but it is stated that the total attempted fraud could go up to $2.5 billion if all were as successful as those discovered in the Netherlands.

It was named "Operation High Roller” and is formed by combination of a large understanding of banking transaction systems (highly possible from an insider) with a malicious code. The code requires no human interaction. 60 servers were found processing thousands of attempted thefts from high-value commercial accounts which included  large global banks, very rich individuals and credit unions.

The malware finds a victim automatically by searching for the highest value accounts and then transfers money to a prepaid debit card which is quickly emptied anonymously. It does this by altering the target's bank statement to conceal the theft. 

Reuters stated that “The new software allows the criminal to siphon money out at all hours, potentially increasing the number of hacked accounts and the speed with which they are drained.” It is said to be an advanced version of two existing malicious software, known as SpyEye and Zeus.

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