AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Spanish National police have arrested a person suspected of leading a gang of cyber criminals that targeted banks, altering account balances and instructing automatic tellers to eject cash, causing as much as a billion euros ($1.2 billion) in damages, Europol said on Monday. The person suspected of being behind malware attacks known as “Carbanak” and “Cobalt” was arrested in Alicante, a port city on the south east coast of Spain, after cooperation between police forces in the United States, Asia and Europe, Europol said. The suspect was cornered and arrested by Spanish police in Spain's port city of Alicante, and is beehived to be the head of the cyber criminal gang behind the Carbanak and Cobalt malware attacks which targeted more than 100 financial institutions worldwide since 2013. The attackers would send spear phishing emails — targeted emails sent to employees of a bank and laced with malicious code — that would infect the victim’s machine and provide the hackers access to the bank’s computer network. The magnitude of the losses is significant: the Cobalt malware alone allowed criminals to steal up to €10m per heist," said Europol, which worked with the Spanish National Police, the FBI, Romanian, Belarussian and Taiwanese authorities, as well as private cyber security firms, all to nab the cyber crook.
Spanish police in Alicante arrest the suspected leader of a bank hacking scheme believed to have stolen over €1 billion.