More Than 60 Charged in Cyber Scheme
More than 60 people have been charged in an alleged global scheme to use computer viruses to steal at least $3 million from U.S. bank accounts.
The U.S. investigation is related to the arrest of 19 people in London on Tuesday in a probe into an international cybercrime group that allegedly stole at least £6 million, or $9.5 million, from U.K. banks, a person familiar with the investigation said Thursday. The U.K. banks included HSBC Holdings PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC.
According to court documents in the U.S., computer hackers in Eastern Europe used a malicious computer code, known as Zeus Trojan, to access bank accounts of small and midsize businesses and municipal entities in the U.S.
The code is often attached to a seemingly legitimate email message and has the virus attached, prosecutors said. The virus then secretly monitors a person’s computer activity and steals usernames and passwords, prosecutors said.
