Denis the cybercrime menace

The mastermind behind malware attacks that programmed ATMs to spit out cash on demand and caused more than 1 billion ($1.7b) in losses has been arrested in Spain.

The leader of a criminal gang that carried out the malware attacks known as Carbanak and Cobalt was detained in Alicante following an investigation by Spanish police, Europol and the FBI.

Spain’s Interior Ministry named the suspect as Denis K, a Ukrainian national.

The organised crime group has been operating since 2013, targeting over 100 financial institutions around the world in heists of as much as 10m per operation. The malware they created could instruct ATMs to dispense cash at a pre-determined time, with gang members waiting by the machines collecting the money.

They also used the e-payment network to transfer money from banks into criminal accounts, and used access to databases to inflate bank account balances in order to collect the money using mules, Europol said. It said the profits were laundered using cryptocurrencies to buy luxury houses and cars.

The cyberattacks mainly targeted banks in Russia. In Spain, attacks took place in Madrid mainly in the first quarter of 2017.

Denis K, working with three other gang members, sent out malwareinfected emails to bank employees. If the employees opened the emails, the gang was able to take control remotely of their computers and access banks’ internal databases and systems. — Bloomberg