Security

ABN Amro Clients Involved in Hack Attacks

14 people arrested by the Dutch police

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

20th of December 2007, 14:18 GMT

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The Dutch police today announced that it had arrested 14 people suspected to be involved in several phishing scams, conducted by Russian and Ukrainian hackers. The 14 persons put their ABN Amro accounts at hackers' disposal and allowed them to transfer stolen money into their accounts. The illegal funds, which were stolen through phishing scams, were then redirected to other countries. The phishing scams were based on fake

websites set up by the hackers, which were apparently hosted by the Russian Business Network, a Russian ISP which has always been criticized for the large amount of illegal activities conducted by its customers.

Because the authorities did a major step in the fight against cybercriminals, the security companies quickly reacted and welcomed the arrest of the 14 people.

"The Dutch police have sent a strong message to cybercriminals of all kinds - any participation in this kind of illegal activity won't be tolerated. While these 14 suspects may not have actually carried out the phishing attacks themselves, they played a key role in the crime by allowing the fraudsters to use their bank accounts", said Mark Harris, global director of SophosLabs.

"However, in these situations it can be tricky to prove the deliberate involvement of the account holder as it's quite easy for them to claim they're simply the victim of identity theft. These arrests represent an important step in the right direction and should deter anyone trying to earn a quick buck from engaging in this type of activity", he added.

This is just another proof that authorities from all over the world are struggling to reduce the number of the illegal activities conducted on the web. However, even numerous people get arrested every day, the number of the phishing scams bundled with other malicious activities remains pretty unchanged and it somehow tends to increase as Christmas gets closer.

TAGS:

prison | abn amro | bank | hack | phishing

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