HACKERS STEAL $1BN IN WORLD'S BIGGEST BANK RAID

A new report has revealed that up to 100 banks and financial institutions worldwide have been attacked in an "unprecedented cyber robbery". According to a report by computer security firm Kaspersky Lab, about $1bn has been stolen in a series of attack that started in 2013 and still ongoing. According to the computer security firm, a cybercriminal gang named Carbanak, with members

from Russia, Ukraine and China is responsible for these cyber robberies. Kaspersky who worked with Interpol and Europol on the investigation said the attacks had taken place in 30 countries including financial firms in Russia, US, Germany, China, Ukraine and Canada. "These attacks again underline the fact that criminals will exploit any vulnerability in any system," said Sanjay Virmani, director of Interpol's digital crime centre.

According to the report, an average bank robbery took between two and four months, with up to $10m stolen each time.

According to the report by Kaspersky, Carbanak, used computer viruses to infect company networks with malware including video surveillance, enabling it to see and record everything that happened on staff's screens.

With this method, the gang members were able to transfer money from the banks' accounts to their own and were also able to tell cash machines to dispense cash at a pre-determined time of day.

"It was a very slick and professional cyber robbery," Sergey Golovanov, Kaspersky Lab's principal security researcher said.

It could be recalled that last year, reports revealed that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission are on the trail of a group of computer hackers who had stolen N6.28billion ($40million), from a Nigerian bank.

These cyber robberies would not be ending soon if McAfee Labs' 2015 predictions comes to pass. 

A report by the American global computer security software company said that the situation will worsen in 2015, as hackers use more advanced techniques to infiltrate networks.