Met Police arrest eight in £1.3m Barclays hack

Nicole Kobie September 20, 2013

Police have arrested eight men after £1.3 million was stolen from a London branch of Barclays Bank, in a computer attack similar to one thwarted last week.

Met Police arrest eight in £1.3m Barclays hack

The Metropolitan Police’s Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) said the theft was reported on 5 April this year from the Swiss Cottage branch of the bank.

Following an investigation, police uncovered equipment designed to remotely connect to the bank’s network. A KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch was attached to a 3G router and connected to one of the branch computers, giving the criminals control of the PC and allowing them to transfer money to their bank accounts.

The KVM is believed to have been installed the day before the attack, by a man pretending he was there to fix computers.

That same technique was used to attack a Santander branch in Surrey Quays, South London – however, that theft was thwarted last week before any money was taken. The Met Police didn’t say the attacks were connected.

The eight men were arrested this morning and yesterday from locations across the capital, with one central London location described as the criminals’ “control centre”.

Police seized cash, jewellery, drugs, thousands of credit cards and “personal data”, and said Barclays has already recovered a “significant amount” of the missing money.

“Those responsible for this offence are significant players within a sophisticated and determined organised criminal network, who used considerable technical abilities and traditional criminal know-how to infiltrate and exploit secure banking systems,” said Detective Inspector Mark Raymond.