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A global fraud ring has been targeting high net-worth businesses and individuals has netted the criminals an estimated $78 million (60 million euros).
According to McAfee and Guardian Analytics which today issued a report on the fraud, "Dissecting Operation High Roller," the attacks, first identified this winter, have hit 60 or more institutions and the total amount stolen may in fact be may be much higher.
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The two security firms say they have tracked "at least a dozen groups" that are relying on "server-side components and heavy automation" with about 60 servers processing thousands of attempted thefts from commercial accounts and the rich. This appears to be happening mainly in the European Union countries, though there's also evidence of it in Latin America and the U.S. These attacks are said to differ from the known malware-based SpyEye and Zeus attacks in that they are far more automated and usually done without human intervention.
"The advanced methods discovered in Operation High Roller show fraudsters moving toward cloud-based servers with multi-faceted automation in a global fraud campaign," said Dave Marcus, McAfee director of advanced research and threat intelligence.
McAfee and Guardian Analytics first spotted evidence of these crime activities in late January in an attack on a bank in Germany...