Trusteer comment on recent USD45m ATM Cyber-Heist

Heist through the internet

According to US Attorney Loretta Lynch, “This was indeed the largest theft of this type that we have yet seen. This was a 21st century bank heist that reached through the Internet to span the globe. But, instead of guns and masks, this cybercrime organization used laptops and malware.” 

According to George Tubin, Senior Security Strategist, Trusteer, “It appears the criminals in this case used advanced malware to breach the corporate network of two unnamed credit card processors that process prepaid debit card transactions.  This type of breach almost always starts with an employee PC being compromised with malware in order to gain a foothold into the corporate network.  Once inside the corporate network, the criminals can do what they want – and this massive heist clearly demonstrates the free reign afforded the cybercriminals to alter highly sensitive, highly protected information to ultimately steal USD45 million.  Despite using market-leading endpoint and network protection solutions most large enterprises are (knowingly or unknowingly) still breached by advanced malware.” 

Tubin continued, “The only way to prevent these attacks is to prevent advanced, information-stealing malware from compromising employee endpoints – the weakest link in the security chain – and then moving the attack inside the corporate network.  Corporate breaches can only be prevented by stopping malicious files from invisibly sneaking onto employee computers through both unknown and unfixed software flaws (aka, vulnerabilities).  Because, once malware infects the user’s computer, it’s game over.”

 “While this particular crime was highly visible due to the stolen funds, many corporate breaches go unnoticed as sensitive corporate data and highly valuable intellectual property are siphoned electronically out of the corporate network”, he said.

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