Operation Lath was a great success, law enforcement prevailing once again

Oct 5, 2011 07:02 GMT  ·  By

A UK cybercriminal gang of 13 people, part of an international online bank heist scheme, have met the end of the road after stealing close to £3 million ($4.6 million or 3.5 million) from the accounts of companies and individuals.

The UK Metropolitan Police released a press statement revealing that the last of the 13 defendants was finally convicted and jailed for two years.

Karina Kostromina, a 34-year-old Latvian, wife of the gang's leader, a Ukranian called Yevhen Kulibaba, was the last to be sentenced and even though she got cleared of conspiracy charges she now faces time for money laundering.

According to Brian Krebs, the Brits were part of an international group of 27 that utilized the ZeuS Trojan virus in order to obtain the bank credentials of unsuspecting victims. The infamous malware was used to obtain everything they needed to empty an account, transferring the sums into their own.

“These defendants were part of an organised network of computer criminals operating a state-of-the art international online banking fraud, through which they stole many millions of pounds from individuals and businesses in the UK and United States,” stated DI Colin Wetherill, from the Metropolitan Police Central eCrime Unit.

“The investigation involved unprecedented levels of cooperation between the Metropolitan Police, the UK banks, the FBI and other UK and international law enforcement agencies. We are working hard to reduce the harm caused by these activities, to put fear into the minds of those contemplating these conspiracies and to bring such offenders to justice”.

As general advice, the Met Police advises internauts on how to properly protect their assets:

- always make sure your operating system and anti-virus software are up-to-date; - use an anti-virus solution that is capable of scanning content coming from the internet; - run full system scans periodically to make sure no malware slipped by; - a firewall is always useful as it can prevent unauthorized access; - avoid opening attachments from unknown individuals or companies; - download new software only from trusted web locations.