Hackers pull off $300 million theft involving 100 global banks in 'largest ever bank heist'

A report has said that more than 100 banks in 30 nations including, Russia, Japan, the United States, and Europe, have fallen victim to a massive, sophisticated malware attack, with more than $300 million stolen in the process since 2013.

The revelation was made in a report prepared by Kaspersky Labs, reported The Verge.

While no banks have acknowledged the theft, experts have dubbed the attack “potentially one of the largest bank heists ever.” Chris Doggett, manager of Kaspersky's North American office in Boston, said that the breach was the “most sophisticated” that the world has seen to date in terms of the tactics and methods employed by the cybercriminals to remain covert.

Kaspersky said that pulling off a cyber theft of this scale required time and the attackers were “patient” in its execution.

The report pointed out that in order to steal as much as 10 million dollars, the hackers had to breach bank computers, remotely install surveillance software and observe everyday behavior. Then, by mimicking employee actions, they could make large transactions look like business as usual. The money was then transferred into dummy accounts created in advance.

A Kaspersky client lost about $7.3 million from ATM transactions.

A large number of the affected banks are in Russia but the hack is widespread and is apparently ongoing.

Although Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center said that the industry had been alerted to the attack, banks have remained tightlipped on the issue till date and have refrained from alerting customers about the issue.