James Delahunty
25 Jun 2011 10:17
Worldwide operation involved simultaneous raids, froze dozens of bank accounts.
Co-operating with law enforcement agencies from eleven other countries around the world, including France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Ukraine's state security service was able to identify and break up a group responsible for infiltrating banking networks.
It is estimated that the hackers stole up to $72 million from compromised networks. The group was organized and led by Ukrainians, using computer viruses to make it possible to get through network security of international banks. The Ukrainian state security service did not name the affected institutions.
"According to preliminary estimates, damage to bank customers' amounts to about $72 million," it said in a statement.
Forty bank accounts located in Latvia were frozen as part of the investigation. Sixteen people have been questioned.