U.S. Justice Department indicts international ATM hacking ring

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November 11th, 2009 - Posted by Caitlin

Yesterday, the U.S. Justice Department indicted eight men who allegedly hacked into a computer system at RBS WorldPay Inc., cloned prepaid ATM cards, and used them to withdraw $9 million from 2,100 ATMs in 280 cities around the world, in less than 12 hours. The prepaid ATM cards that they cloned were payroll debit cards that companies issue to their employees. The hackers raised the maximum withdrawal amounts and attempted to destroy data in order to remove evidence of the breach. Charges against the hackers include wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. One of the accused has been arrested and is awaiting extradition from Estonia, and the rest remain at large. Authorities say this hacking ring is one of the most sophisticated in the world.

According to Shawn Henry, the assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, "More money is stolen electronically or [in] data breaches than through bank robberies." RBS customers have been reimbursed for the stolen funds, but a class action lawsuit is pending against RBS WorldPay, alleging that the company failed to adequately protect consumer data. RBS WorldPay has acknowledged that the breach impacted 1.5 million cardholders, and that 1.1 million Social Security numbers may have been compromised.

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