More arrests in Zeus botnet sting

An international sting by police has led to 150 arrests of people allegedly linked to a hacking operation that stole millions from online bank accounts.

However, security experts and police believe that the current arrests, which were carried out by officers in the UK, US, Ukraine and Holland, only touch the tip of the iceberg and more attacks could be launched.

Mickey Boodaei, chief executive officer of Trusteer, a security firm that uncovered one of the Zeus botnets in August, said: “The arrests show that some of the criminal groups behind Zeus are doing a poor job in covering their tracks and they are vulnerable to discovery.

"But there are other Zeus cyber-crime gangs operating elsewhere in the world.”

The arrests of mainly Eastern Europeans began in London last month when the Metropolitan Polices’ specialist cyber-crime division, the Police Central e-crime Unit, detained 19 people. This has continued in other countries and it is believed around 90 arrests have been made in the US and others in Ukraine.

The FBI is said to still be searching for a further 17 people. Those arrested so far are not believed to be the ringleaders but money mules.

The gang attempted to steal $220m, according to the FBI, but in the end is believed to have netted around £44.4m, £6m of which was from British victims.

Using the Zeus Trojan, which harvested people’s online bank details, the gang siphoned off money from accounts. The mules then laundered the cash through bank accounts they set up.

Some of the gang members arrested in the UK have been charged with conspiracy to defraud the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Barclays Bank.