Did North Korea Steal $81 Million From The New York Federal Reserve Last Year?

FBI offices in Los Angeles and New York have been leading an international investigation into the February 2016 incident, in which hackers breached Bangladesh Bank's systems and withdrew money from its account at the New York Fed (seen above)

Daily Mail: Did Kim Jong-Un pull off one the biggest bank robberies in history? FBI investigates cyber-theft of $81m from central bank of Bangladesh held at the New York Federal Reserve

* Last year, $81million was stolen in cyber heist from Bangladesh Bank
* The bank held the money at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
* FBI believes that North Korea orchestrated heist with help from Chine

US prosecutors are building potential cases that would accuse North Korea of directing the theft of $81million from Bangladesh Bank's account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last year.

It would try and charge alleged Chinese middlemen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation believes that North Korea is responsible for the heist, an official briefed on the probe told Reuters.

Richard Ledgett, deputy director of the US National Security Agency, publicly suggested on Tuesday that North Korea may be linked to the incident, while private firms have long pointed the finger at the reclusive state.

Read more ....

More News On Reports That North Korea Stole $81 Million From The New York Federal Reserve Last Year

US blames North Korea for $US81 million bank heist-- The Australian/WSJ
North Korea Said to Be Target of Inquiry Over $81 Million Cyberheist -- NYT
Prosecutors could implicate North Korea in NY Federal Reserve cyber bank heist: report -- The Hill
North Korea investigated for possible role in $81 million bank cyberheist -- CBS
US may accuse N. Korea in Bangladesh cyber heist: WSJ -- CNBC
The US Thinks North Korea May Have Robbed the New York Federal Reserve -- Vanity Fair

Is One Gang Behind A Third Of The World's Cyber Crime

Cybercrime Gang 'Responsible For A Third Of Data Thefts' -- The Telegraph

A single gang has been found to be behind more than a third of cyber crime, a global industry estimated to cost the UK economy billions each year.

The organisation, thought to be Russian and currently under investigation by international law enforcement authorities, works behind complex systems of misdirection and secrecy. It has been detected by profiling the way it attacks company networks via the internet to steal credit card numbers and other valuable data.

The heists begin with the gang taking remote control of legitimate software used by IT support departments to maintain computers.

Read more ....

My Comment: If one gang can do this, one can only imagine what a organization supported by a government and its institutions can do.

Inside A Global Cybercrime Ring

U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigators Sheryl Novick (L) and Martha Vera look at images (top half of monitors) as part of their investigation of the scareware company Innovative Marketing Ukraine (IMU) in the FTC internet lab in Washington March 22, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Molly Riley

From Reuters:

(Reuters) - Hundreds of computer geeks, most of them students putting themselves through college, crammed into three floors of an office building in an industrial section of Ukraine's capital Kiev, churning out code at a frenzied pace. They were creating some of the world's most pernicious, and profitable, computer viruses.

According to court documents, former employees and investigators, a receptionist greeted visitors at the door of the company, known as Innovative Marketing Ukraine. Communications cables lay jumbled on the floor and a small coffee maker sat on the desk of one worker.

Read more ....

My Comment: A good chunk of my family (on my father's side) lives in the Ukraine. One of my cousin .... a software programmer, worked for a few months in such a company. Apparently the pay was great, and the people who he worked with were fun. I only learned about this later, because if I had learned about when he was working there, I would probably have gone down to his house and beat him over the head for being stupid enough to be affiliated with such criminals.

Because of my work in managing computer networks, I have had more than my share in tackling these vicious viruses. I have lost tons of information, and worse .... megaloads of my life in cleaning up the mess that such attacks always produced.

This Reuters article is a good one in outlining the problems and obstacles that need to be overcome to stop this type of cyber crime. This is a must read for all geeks, and for the individual user who has been a victim of this type of attack.