Russian 'Silence' hacking crew turns up the volume – with $3m-plus cyber-raid on bank's cash machines

A prominent Russian hacker crew is seemingly expanding its reach – having just pulled off a multi-million dollar cyber-heist in Bangladesh, we're told. Singapore-based security outfit Group-IB told The Reg it believes the crooks, dubbed Silence, stole at least $3m (£2.4m) from Bangladesh-based Dutch-Bangla Bank via a string of …

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a lot of cash

> Moscow-based security outfit Group-IB told The Reg it believes the crooks, dubbed Silence, stole at least $3m (£2.4m) from Bangladesh-based Dutch-Bangla Bank via a string of cash-machine withdrawals over a span of several days.

According to Google the currency of Bangladesh is the Taka and the largest denomination note is 1000 Taka, which is $11.84 at today's exchange rates. So $3m works out to 250,000 notes. They must have hit every cash point in the country to get that many.

[Jimmy2Cows]

Re: That's a lot of cash

Depends what the max withdrawal limit per machine is. And as the auth system is pwnd then who knows...?

[lglethal]

Re: That's a lot of cash

It does sort of raise the question of how you're going to launder all that cash. If a whole ton of Taka notes starts appearing in currency exchanges around the world (or at least back in Ukraine/Eastern Europe), then thats certainly going to open up some routes for tracking where the money is going and who did the stealing. I guess they could have immediately hit up various money exchanges in Bangaldesh straight away for European currencies, but 3 million is a lot to shift in a short amount of time, especially if you're sticking to the "less official" exchanges.

Whilst they stole 3 million, I wonder how much they really managed to get back to their own bank accounts, probably less than a million after exchange rates, mule payment, and other losses are taken into account. Shame really that they've turned to crime, If they're as smart as it seems, they probably could have made good money working on the other side...

[MonkeyCee]

Re: That's a lot of cash

"It does sort of raise the question of how you're going to launder all that cash."

With a plan :)

Chap wrote a book about doing it, after going to prison for being in a football gang. Same gang, just did skimming.

They would go as a group to a European city, pull out as much as they could, then it would be handed off to a local. Flying with a bunch of cash was asking for trouble. Looking like a bunch of lads out for boozy city break was the cover.

A few million in cash is probably not going to even make a ripple in Bangladeshi black economy.

[Pascal Monett]

The sound of Silence

Appears to be the rustling of lots of bills.

So they could be only 2, and they have managed to completely pwn a bank, control its PCs and get control over ATMs.

Man, they are evil, but that is awesome intelligence applied to a bad use. I wonder if intrusion detection is going to take off in those parts now ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Computer says:

Sure, why not, take it all