Russian-Ukrainian group of hackers detained in Spain

On March 26, the Associated Press reported the arrest of a Russian-Ukrainian group of hackers, which is accused of stealing $1.24 billion worldwide. Members of the group transferred funds obtained illegally into the BTC cryptocurrency.

Spanish police, with the participation of the FBI and Europol, arrested Ukrainian Denis K., the leader of the gang, and his three accomplices in the city of Alicante. It is reported that in five years, cybercriminals have attacked more than a hundred financial institutions. In the event of a successful outcome of each operation, they received no less than €10 million.

According to law enforcement, the Ukrainian, born in 1984, had lived in Spain for four years and had a residence permit in this country. His group - "Cobalt" - united Russians and Ukrainians based on the love of programming and easy money.

Law enforcement agencies say that almost all banks in Russia came under hacker attacks, half of which lost significant capital.

The group penetrated the internal networks of banks, sending phishing emails with malware to their employees, which allowed attackers to control vulnerable equipment. In this way, they compromised ATMs and withdrew an unlimited amount of funds from them, which they then transferred to the military-technical exchange.

After the conversion, the gang members used the digital currency to purchase cars, real estate in Spain and other assets.  

The Spanish publication El Mundo reports that the hacker leader sincerely considers himself Robin Hood, who takes money from bloodsucking banks, and not from their depositors.

But in Spain, "Robin Hood" managed to buy, nevertheless, a nice house where he lived with his wife and child, two expensive cars and jewelry.

Ukrainian cyber police report that they have detained another member of the Cobalt gang in Kyiv. This hacker penetrated the software of hotels and banks in Ukraine and stole account and bank card data. He sold the information obtained in this way to resellers in bulk. The largest “deal,” by his own admission, brought the Kiev resident a profit of $1.5 million for the data of 140 thousand bank cards.