Remember that time you stole R20 from your mom’s purse and snuck off to buy some sweets / cigarettes / crackling? Remember when R20 could get you any of those things? Ah, good times.

Well you may have felt a tinge of guilt but you’re still mucking around in the minor leagues, my friend. A gang of cyber criminals are rumoured to have cleaned out financial institutions around the world to the tune of $1 billion, if findings from Russian computer security company Kaspersky Lab are to be believed.

So how has no one picked up on this monstrous amount of moola going missing? Business Insider reports:

The gang, which Kaspersky dubbed Carbanak, takes the unusual approach of stealing directly from banks, rather than posing as customers to withdraw money from companies’ or individuals’ accounts…

…the criminals learned how the bank clerks worked and could mimic their activity when transferring the money.

I think Ron Burgundy said it best.

But wait, there’s more. The gang would inflate the bank balances of certain accounts and then withdraw the extra balance, leaving the account holder none the wiser. My personal favourite, again from Business Insider:

Carbanak also remotely seized control of ATMs and ordered them to dispense cash at a predetermined time, when a gang member would be waiting to collect the money.

I once walked past an ATM which actually popped out a few bills unprompted. We danced in the streets and headed to the nearest bar, spending far more than the ATM had gifted us. I doubt these smooth criminals have that problem.

Let’s also take a moment to chuckle at the irony of these big financial institutions being robbed by the people. Now someone catch them before they nab our hard-earned rands.

[source:businessinsider]