Feds Indict Hackers for Stealing 15 Million Payment Card Numbers

Three members of the notorious hacking syndicate known every bit Carbanak accept been arrested for stealing xv million payment cards from thousands of point-of-sale machines across the earth.

On Wednesday, the United states of america Justice Section announced indictments against three Ukrainian nationals for infecting over 100 US businesses with their payment card-stealing malware.

The Carbanak gang, likewise known every bit Fin7, have been active since at least 2022, and used their hacking activities to steal payment card records from every bit many as 6,500 point-of-sale terminals, federal officials said. Targeted companies include fast-food chains such as Chipotle, Crimson Robin, Arby'south and Chili's, besides as hotels and casinos.

Fin7 Carbanak

The Carbanak gang relied on a combination of phishing emails and phone calls. For case, a business might receive a legitimate-looking email near a catering request or hotel reservation with a malicious Word document attached. The hackers can and then get as far as to think the business and trick an unwitting employee to open up the phishing electronic mail and load the malicious zipper.

Once infected, the victim's calculator tin be exploited to run other malware that tin be used to browse for other vulnerable systems, like point-of-sale machines. The hackers will and then steal any payment card numbers, with the goal of selling the goods on digital black markets.

The payment menu theft touched 47 states in the United states of america, and too involved intrusions in the U.k., Australia, and France. It isn't clear how federal investigators identified the suspects. Only co-ordinate to the indictments, members of the Carbanak gang often communicated over a private HipChat server, where they shared files containing the malware. They also ready other servers and email accounts through sites such as Yahoo to help program and operate their schemes.

Fin7 Carbanak 2

All three suspects named in Wednesday's indictments were arrested in Europe. One suspect, Fedir Hladyr, is currently detained in Seattle pending trial; the other ii, Dmytro Fedorov and Andrii Kolpakov, are awaiting extradition to the United states of america. The United states of america has charged them with computer hacking, wire fraud, identity theft and other crimes. If found guilty, the suspects could face decades in jail time, co-ordinate to US officials.

However, the investigation into the Carbanak gang remains ongoing. Federal officials believe the gang may number in the dozens. The group has allegedly operated through a front end visitor called Combi Security, which is headquartered in both Russia and Israel and specializes in Information technology security testing.

It besides isn't articulate if the gang was involved in any other cyber heists. Other iterations of the Carbanak malware have been involved in attacking banks, but information technology's possible those attacks may take been spearheaded by a separate group.