Be On Gard - Sumitomo Bank raid a reminder

Published: Friday, March 18, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

BE ON GUARD - CONSTANTLY

Sumitomo Bank raid a reminder

As we went to press this week the story of what could have been the biggest bank robbery of all time - GBP 220 million - was hitting the headlines, a potent reminder that all users of the Internet need to be continuously on guard.

More than a million computers connected to the internet have been hijacked to attack websites and pump out spam and viruses, the UK press reported. The huge number of affected machines was revealed by security experts who have spent months tracking more than 100 networks of remotely controlled machines.

The research was published as it was revealed yesterday that a hi-tech crime ring tried to steal GBP 220 million from the London offices of Sumitomo, the Japanese bank.

The researchers gathered their data using decoy machines that looked innocent but were designed to attract hackers - whose actions were duly logged.

The study of "zombies" or "bots" - hijacked computers - was done by the Honeynet Project, a group of security researchers that use networks of computers as "honey pots". The largest of the zombie networks spied on by the team was made up of 50,000 computers. The researchers concluded that computer technology could be abused even by the most inexperienced of hackers.

They reported: "Leveraging the power of several thousand bots, it is viable to take down almost any website or network instantly. Even in unskilled hands, it should be obvious that bot nets are a loaded and powerful weapon."

Criminals are starting to use bot nets for mass identity theft, hosting websites that look like those of banks to gather confidential information and looking into online traffic to steal sensitive data.

And gambling sites have been hit hard by web attacks.

The Sumitomo raid was described as one of the most audacious thefts attempted in the City for many years. Police have been investigating it since October. The gang gained access to Sumitomo's computer systems and tried to transfer the cash electronically to ten bank accounts around the world.

Their plan was uncovered before any cash was transferred and a man has been arrested in Israel. The plot was uncovered by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit.