Seventy people have been arrested for alleged involvement in a global cybercrime scheme that used malicious software to steal more than US$3m from bank accounts.

This is the latest in a series of efforts to crack down on the ring using the Zeus malicious software to access bank accounts illegally. On Wednesday, police in London made 19 arrests, 11 of which were related to Zeus attacks that stole £6m from UK bank accounts.

Zeus is considered among the most effective means for stealing money from online bank accounts.

Noa Bar-Yosef, Imperva’s senior security strategist commented on how the Zeus scam may have operated. "These criminals operated Zeus in one of two ways: either the bots used were under their own control, or, and more likely the case, they rented a bot from a bot 'farmer’. The bot farmer grows and manages the bot, and the criminals then rented and used it,” he offers.

“The hacking rings we see today take on a more organized approach, similar to a drug cartel or a cyber-mafia. There is a hierarchy with employees that have a distinct role in the scheme – the researcher looks for different ways to infect machines, the botnet farmer operates the bots, the botnet dealer rents the bots, and the actual 'consumer' monetizes on the virtual goods received by the bot.
In this scheme, these bots did more than just harvest user credentials, he adds, they injected code into the user's browser so that the user thinks they have a legitimate connection with their bank. In fact, the user was actually engaging with the Trojan.

“Banks need to step up their security measures -- instead of being reactionary after the fact, try to be proactive by guessing the next steps of the hackers. The banks can use the uncovering of this Zeus exploit to learn more about how these gangs work. They can see how the attack code was adapted over time and analyze the modification of methods, which can help them anticipate the next move hackers are likely going to make."

Mickey Boodaei, CEO of Trusteer', a provider of secure browsing services added: “Behind these operations you can find groups of people which in many cases operate for larger organised crime groups. They have the money and the means to run large scale sustainable criminal online operations. As time goes by we're seeing more groups which are larger, more efficient, and knowledgeable than before, and as a result much more successful. Zeus is being used around the world to attack individual customers, and big businesses are also being targeted, particularly in the US.

“The arrests show that some of the criminal groups behind Zeus are doing a poor job in covering their tracks. This provides an excellent opportunity for the police, the banks, and their customers to join together and get more criminals behinds bars. The police and law enforcement agencies did a great job in tracing down this group and gathering information that can facilitate their arrest. This is not a simple task and I've heard many people saying that this is almost impossible due to the level of sophistication from criminals and the complication of the justice system. However, this case and a few others that precede it show that this can be achieved.”

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