Thomas Fox-Brewster reports:
In November this year, dignitaries and bigwigs of the cyber security industry gathered inside Europol’s headquarters in The Hague. As they talked about general issues affecting the community, namely financially-motivated criminals, ears pricked up when one particular strain of malware, called Anunak, was said to have brought about the “armageddon” of the Russian banking industry, according to Andy Chandler, a senior vice president at security firm Fox-IT.
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The Anunak hackers’ most profitable work, however, has come from attacks on the Russian finance industry. Along with Moscow-based security provider Group-IB, Fox-IT has released a report today detailing the activities of the Anunak hackers, who have snuck into a large number of banks this year and siphoned off as much as $18 million, or one billion roubles. They’ve been able to make off with $2 million per attack, having gained access to networks of more than 50 Russian banks. They’ve even managed to infect 52 separate ATM systems to make off with more cash. In some cases, the damage has been so severe financial institutions have been forced to give up their banking licence.
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