Europol: Arrested members of gang that emptied ATMs through banking network

Europol reports that its European Cybercrime Center, or EC3, contributed to the arrest of five members of an international gang. They penetrated bank networks and managed to steal money from ATMs.

According to the organization, the attacks were “highly sophisticated” that caused the ATMs to spend their entire cash supply. To achieve this, the criminals first sent targeted phishing emails containing malware. In this way they subsequently managed to penetrate a bank’s internal network and gain control over the network of ATMs.

In addition, the gang used special software to cover its tracks. The arrests were made by Romanian, Taiwanese and Belarusian police. In some of these cases, the police were able to recover some of the stolen money.

Europol further reports that the investigation into the criminals began in 2016 and that the group members were recruited online. They had different nationalities, which made it easy for them to travel between countries. The damage to the banks would have amounted to three million euros.

Europol regularly supports international actions by various police forces. A year ago, the organization was involved in the arrest of a gang that also emptied ATMs. The group did this with the so-called Tyupkin malware and not via the internal banking network.