Cybercrooks Surpassed Old School Bankrobbers In '09

krebsonsecurity writes "Organized cyber-criminal gangs stole $25 million in the 3rd quarter alone last year, by pilfering the online bank accounts of small to midsized businesses, the FDIC reported last week. In contrast, traditional bank robbers hauled just $9.4 million in 1,184 bank robberies during that same period, according to an analysis of FBI bank crime statistics by krebsonsecurity.com. From that story: 'The federal government sure publishes a lot more information about physical bank robberies than it makes available about online stick-ups. Indeed, the FBI's bank crime stats are extraordinarily detailed. For example, they can tell you that in the 3rd quarter of last year, bank robbers were more likely to hold up their local branch between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on a Wednesday than at any other time or day of the week; they can tell you the number of tear gas and dye packs taken with the loot, the number of security cameras activated, the number of food stamps taken, even what percentage of suspected perpetrators had illegal drug habits at the time of the robberies. About the only thing the stats don't tell you is what brand of jeans the perpetrators were wearing and whether the getaway car had cool vanity plates. What do we get about e-crime statistics from the federal government? One guy from the FDIC giving a speech at the RSA conference."

Re:Hostages..

[rhsanborn]

I suspect the banks do have insurance that covers the loss during a robbery. I also suspect that the small to mid-size businesses don't have insurance that covers someone logging in and emptying their bank accounts, which can sink a small company.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:why do people hack bank accounts?

[conspirator57]

i don't disagree with you, i was just revamping the old canard about robbing banks.

http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/sutton/sutton.htm [fbi.gov]

Re:Huh

[savanik]

This was actually predicted some time ago, in a Cyberpunk 2020 supplement. I forget which one exactly, I think it was 'Listen Up, You Primitive Screwheads!'

"Back in the late twentieth century, the average short term loan's length was 30 days. In 2060, the average term is 30 seconds. What can you do in 30 seconds? If you hop on a fast bike, you might make it part of the way down the street. But I can take that thirty-second loan and make enough money to buy a South Sea island, complete with mansion and Playboy bunnies to serve my every whim through a little miracle called currency arbitrage."

Quote is approximate.

Re:Hostages..

[Anonymous Coward]

Outlaw guns and this will happen more often. Arm every citizen and I doubt anyone will be dumb enough to use one in anger.

I thought organized crime...

[ls671]

I thought that organized crime had moved to cyber-robbing a long time ago so is this really news ? I am just wondering...

The 9.4 millions robbed in a conventional way are probably due to poor, "un-organized" people ;-))

Re:Saw the ethief coming...

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former teller, I can tell the /. crowd that robbing a bank physically is one of the stupidest things you can do. Unless you do a military style takedown (which takes substantially longer and is much more dangerous than handing a note to a teller) you get away with 10k at the very best. The "vault" in many cases doesn't hold more than a couple hundred thousand... and that's a large branch during Christmas. The thing idiot bank robbers don't realize is that the more money a bank has sitting in the branch, the more capital is in use and the less the bank can loan, so the bank's return on capital go down the more money they have sitting in branches, essentially doing nothing for the shareholders.

The stacks of money you see in movies are about as realistic as the hacking scenes in most movies. If you're going to be a blight on society, eHacking is the way to go... but as someone who's seen some aspects of bank IT security from the inside, I wouldn't recommend that either.

Re:Of Course

[Anonymous Coward]

"...downfalls..."

I don't know what it is, but lots of people are misusing the hell out of this word lately. I believe you were looking for "downsides" instead. Downfalls are events, whereas downsides are negative properties. Think of Icarus: His downfall was when he fell down due to the downside of his wings being vulnerable to the heat of the sun.