Hackers Stole $415,000 from Bullitt County Coffers

Cyber criminals from Ukraine reportedly filched $415,000 from Bullitt County's coffers in Kentucky (USA) during the end week of June 2009. Over 24 accomplices in the US aided the crooks along with a string of harmful codes that were designed to bypass the security measures installed by the banks.

Attorney of Bullitt County said that the problem started on June 22, 2009 when an unknown person had begun wiring money amounted $10,000 from the payroll of the county to 25 individuals' accounts across the country.

Attorney further stated that First Federal Savings Bank froze an account of the county on June 29, 2009 after the bank had found that the sum had already been transferred to a number of banks in the country. When First Federal became suspicious of something wrong, it started requesting those banks getting the transfers to begin reversing them.

Moreover, the county's bank told Attorney's office that by July 2, 2009, the bank's authorities would likely know the number of banks make the reversals of money. The bank officials also added that they thought part of the county's money might be recovered though it was not certain exactly how much.

Meanwhile, it appears that some type of PC virus made the illegal transfers, as attorney of Bullitt County said that employees of the county received e-mails carrying a password-stealing virus.

The virus enabled the culprit to gain access to extremely sensitive bank details and change passwords; thus, allowing him enter the account. The miscreant then carried out the transactions from Ukraine and distributed the sum to several US banks.

Besides, a BBB agent said that it didn't surprise him that anyone had become victim of a phishing fraud. He said the incident at Bullitt County should be an alert to all the government organizations owning bank accounts through online services.

Meanwhile, an investigation by the FBI has started and Bullitt County Attorney stated that finding the perpetrator could take some time. While an FBI spokesman suspected that the theft had worldwide connections, he couldn't say if any criminal had been identified.

Related article: Hackers Redirect Windows Live Search to Malicious Sites

» SPAMfighter News - 7/21/2009