Recently Rakbank and Bank of Muscat faced an international ATM heist of big proportion. This is a significant cyber crime where financial institutions have been duped of tremendous amount. In fact, the way these financial crimes have been committed shows that banks have to pay more attention towards their cyber security requirements.

As the cyber crime involved multiple jurisdictions and many cyber criminals, the law enforcement agencies of various nations started a comprehensive search for these criminals. The cash withdrawals were made through ATMs in 24 countries including the US, Germany, Japan, Russia, Romania, Egypt, Colombia, Britain, Sri Lanka and Canada.

In fact, the American and German authorities have announced the arrest of nine people in connection with the ATM card heist. Meanwhile, the global ringleaders are believed to be outside the US and US prosecutors have so far declined to give further details, citing the continuing investigation.

The modus operendi used by the cyber criminals was very simple but highly effective. The cyber criminals cracked the bank databases and eliminated withdrawal limits on prepaid debit cards and created access codes. The crucial data was then incorporated into a plastic card with a magnetic stripe that acted as good as the original one.

The money was then withdrawn through a network of people in multiple cities around the world and routed to the leader after deducting their respective commissions.