Coordinated, Global ATM Heist Nets $13 Million

An anonymous reader writes "An international cybercrime gang stole $13 million from a Florida-based financial institution earlier this year, by executing a highly-coordinated heist in which thieves used ATMs around the globe to cash out stolen prepaid debit cards. 'Prepaid cards usually limit the amounts that cardholders can withdraw from a cash machine within a 24 hour period. Apparently, the crooks were able to drastically increase or eliminate the withdrawal limits for 22 prepaid cards that they had obtained. The fraudsters then cloned the prepaid cards, and distributed them to co-conspirators in several major cities across Europe, Russia and Ukraine.' The attack is eerily similar to the 2008 attack on RBS WorldPay that stole $9.4M. The men who pleaded guilty to the RBS attack were arrested and charged in Russia, but were later given only probation."

every-24-hour coordination

[Iamthecheese]

Many banking systems only talk to each-other in nightly batches. It's mostly done that way because that's the way it's always been done, and to save money on entirely new systems. The every-24-hours style is less secure, slow, and inefficient. This is 2011 and there's no real excuse for it.