A hacking ring made off with up to 1 billion dollar from banks in Eastern Europe, Russia and the U.S., according to a report published by Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity firm.
The Russian firm further states that the hackers get access to the banks' computers by employing phishing schemes and other techniques. After this, for months, they capture screenshots and take video of the workers using their computers in order to learn the banks' systems.
After familiarizing themselves with the banks' working, the hackers steal money without letting anyone know about it. They program ATMs to dish out money at particular times or open fake bank accounts and get the money transferred in those accounts.
According to the security firm, one of the reasons why the fraud could not be detected earlier was that the hackers restricted the stolen amount to around 10 million dollar before moving on to a different bank.
The cybersecurity firm states that the hackers have hit minimum 100 banks in more than 30 nations, since the end of the year 2013.
Maximum number of thefts have taken place in the U.S., China, Russia, Ukraine and Germany.
In one instance, 7.3 million dollar was stolen from a bank through ATM fraud. In another instance, 10 million dollar was stolen from a financial institution as the hackers exploited its online banking platform.
The report will be presented at a security conference in Cancun, Mexico on Monday.
