Hackers steal $5.2 million within 72 hours

When the rest of the globe was making resolutions and sleeping off a night of partying, a South African hacker group rounded in the New Year by sneaking more than $5 million from a government deposit.

In a 72-hour span ceasing not long after 6:00 a.m. Jan. 3, the criminals attained 42 million rand (about $5.2 million) from the state-owned Postbank, part of the South African PO that accommodates approximately 4 billion rand in deposits, the South African paper Times Live described.

South Africa’s National intelligence service and the police force have established an investigation but no suspects have been identified. The bank pronounced none of its more than four million clients were impacted.

The hi-tech heist commenced in the ending of December, whilst members of the criminal crew commenced opening accounts nationwide with Postbank. Over the New Year vacation break, the syndicate penetrated a Rustenberg Post Office employee’s computer. From that point, the criminals were capable to access Postbank’s server and create deceitful bank deposits to the many accounts they’d assembled.