Hackers sentenced for trojan bank heist

Four cyber criminals have been sentenced to jail for attempting to steal money and credentials from bank accounts in the UK.

The men were given sentences ranging from 21 months to four-and-a-half years for their parts in the theft and laundering scam.

The hackers used the PSP2-BBB Trojan application to perform 'man-in-the-middle' attacks which redirected money transfers to third-party accounts.

The UK Metropolitan Police said that 'money mules' then accessed the funds and presented them as Western Union wire transfers to various destinations in Russia and eastern Europe, thus preventing investigators from tracing the path of the stolen money.

Authorities broke up the scam in April, hailing it as an early victory for the new Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit. Police estimated that the total haul in the heist was in the six-figure range.

"This was a complex investigation which certainly involves other people in Russia, but there was a clear structure to the organisation in the UK," said detective constable Kevin Brocklesby.

"Plenty of people appear to be willing to accept money into their accounts with no questions asked, and they are a crucial cog in this kind of criminal machine."