14 DAY TRIAL // Five suspects have been detained by the Romanian authorities for hacking into the networks of several U.S. pharmaceutical companies and intercepting credit card transaction data. The total damages amount to 800,000 USD.
Police officers from the Directorate for Fighting Electronic Crime have collaborated with prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) and specialists from the FBI, in order to identify a group of five Romanian hackers, with ages between 20 and 32 years old.
According to the authorities, starting from November 2007, the cybercrooks have hacked into computer systems belonging to several U.S.-based companies activating in the pharmaceutical industry. Keyloggers have been installed on the compromised machines in order to intercept the details of credit cards used at numerous points of sales.
It is also noted in a DIICOT press release (in Romanian) that the legit remote administration system utilized by the companies has represented the entry point for the hackers. From the documents submitted by the affected parties, the damages are estimated at around 800,000 USD.
On April 9, the police raided seven locations in Bucharest, where the suspects were living, and took, for forensic investigation, nine laptops, two desktop computers, five hard disk drives, as well as CDs and memory cards. Additionally, two cars, 123.500 USD, 34.700 euros, 25.800 Romanian lei, six luxury watches, jewelry amounting to over one kg in gold, precious and semi-precious stones were also seized.
Two of the suspects have received temporary 29-day arrest terms, while the rest have been released after 24 hours. All of them will face charges of unauthorized access to a computer system and intercepting electronic data, performing fraudulent financial operations by utilizing electronic payment methods, as well as money laundering, under Romanian law.
This operation seems to be part of some greater police initiative that targets Romanian cyber-criminals. Yesterday, we reported that a big phishing network based in Iasi, Romania, had been dismantled. At the end of March, members of a similar gang have been arrested in several cities located in the west of the country. Also, last month, a 23-year-old student, accused of hacking into a network belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense back in 2006, was detained.
