Two Estonian Hackers Attacked Nordea Netbank
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation and the the Estonian Police are investigating on an attack against Nordea internet banking system.
Hackers stole approximately 1.2 million euros most of which have been tracked and found. Nordea communicated that the bank has already reimbursed all the damages to the victims.
Police suspects that 17 people were involved in the crime. During the investigation, five people were arrested and, according to what Police explained, it seems that the crime could have been organized by two Estonian citizens.
One person is now suspected of aggravated fraud while another one is of aiding and abetting of an aggravated fraud. Fifteen people are being suspected of money laundering.
The crime was executed in several European countries through a malware program that criminals used to contaminate customers computers and make approximately a hundred bank transfers attacking 89 private individuals or companies bank accounts.
The fifteen suspects seemed then to have acted as middlemen transferring money to the two main ones. Once in the hands of the middlemen, the money was transmitted to bank accounts in Finland and several other European countries registered under the name of the two Estonians.
The investigation on the issue started in January 2011 while the crimes were committed between December 2009 and April 2010.
The secret is in your SPAM folder
Middlemen, or so-called mules, have been recruited by using direct contacts and through some internet sites: in internet crime, mules are used as third persons to illegally transfer money and goods.
According to the official reconstruction of the events, it is legitimate to think that the main suspects used mass e-mails and text messages promising lucrative job opportunities in international finance to get middlemen involved in this fraud.
Activities as the one under enquiry are in fact often hidden behind messages offering opportunities for an extra income with tremendously easy requirements as having reached the age of majority, the possession of an e-mail address and a of a bank account with netbank user ID.
What people usually do not think of while answering to such messages is that once a person is involved in an action similar to the one discovered by Estonian and Finnish authorities, this very same person become at risk of crimes as (to say the most common) money laundering.
Nordea adopts new measures: is it enough?
After netbank frauds, Nordea decided to answer improving its netbanks security.
When attempting to complete considerable bank transfers, the bank now decided to ask for a confirmation by phone or by text message, so that not everything can be achieved solely online.
A measure, this one, that might still not be enough to guarantee an absolute security of e-banking environments if it is true that according to the Finnish National Bureau, the police faces similar kinds of mule cases almost weekly.
During the years 2007-2010, Finnish police faced 159 money laundering cases and good news, if you like seeing it like this in half of the cases, police have been able to prevent bank transfers.
The most common destination for illegal bank transfers is Ukraine and Russia. Several money laundering cases have been revealed in recent years also in Estonia, where the sensational case of a 19 million euro money laundering issue gained the front page of international papers only one year ago.SOURCE: estonianfreepress.com
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