Japanese police are investigating coordinated raids across stores in Japan that resulted in the theft of $13m from ATMs in just three hours
Cybercrime doesn’t know boundaries, and in many countries, security experts are observing a rapid evolution of illegal phenomena on the web.
Japan actually hosts one of the most interesting underground communities, a criminal online community that is growing in a significant way despite that it has a still highly stealthy underground economy.
According to Japan’s National Police Agency, cybercriminal activities until March 2015 increased 40% over the previous year.
Now, reportedly, criminals have stolen a total of 1.4 billion yen (roughly $12.7 million) in cash from some 1,400 ATMs in convenience stores across the country. The money was stolen in just a couple of hours last week. The theft at convenience store ATMs took place during the morning of May 15 in Tokyo and 16 prefectures across Japan.
According to local law enforcement, a criminal organization withdrew the cash from ATMs by using cloned payment cards that were forged with data stolen from a South African bank.
It is still not clear how and when the cybercriminals stole the card data from the South African bank.
Japanese authorities are investigating the case alongside South African authorities through the International Criminal Police Organization.
Clearly authorities are facing a coordinated attack that likely involved many people. Japanese investigators believe over 100 people might have been involved in the illicit withdrawal.
Further information about the criminal operation reveals that there were approximately 14,000 transactions, and that the maximum amount of money that was stolen by criminals was 100,000 yen withdrawn from seven bank ATMs using the fake credit cards.
The analysis of the ATM transaction logs suggests that attackers used data from 1,600 credit cards issued by a South African bank.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/secbloggerwards2016
Thank you
Pierluigi
(Security Affairs – ATMs, Japan)
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