3 jailed over US$2.6m heist after Taiwan ATMs hacked
Print Edition
THREE east Europeans were jailed for five years in Taiwan yesterday over a US$2.6 million heist that involved hacking into a major island bank’s ATM network.
The attack targeted the First Commercial Bank’s ATM network in July and saw money withdrawn from dozens of machines in three cities on the island.
The gang had uncovered a security loophole in a server at the bank’s London branch office and used it to plant malware, according to Taiwan authorities.
Latvian Andrejs Peregudovs, Mihail Colibaba, from Romania and Niklae Penkov, from Moldova, were convicted of causing damage to the public by breaching computer security, a Taipei court said.
They were also fined NT$600,000 (US$19,143) each and will be deported after completing their sentences, the court said.
Prosecutors had sought 12-year jail terms, saying their multiple actions had “seriously disrupted financial order and caused public panic.”
But court spokesman Liao Chien-yu said the judges considered the illegal bank withdrawals as one case, which carries a maximum five-year sentence.
Prosecutors said it was the first case of a multinational crime ring hacking into a bank’s computer system to plant malware.
Last year, Thai police said a gang of foreign criminals stole millions of baht by hacking into a local bank’s ATM network in a theft believed to be linked to the one in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s government has added 19 suspects, including an Australian, a French national and an unknown number of east Europeans, to a list of people they want to question after they fled the island following the heist.
Surveillance images released by the bank showed masked robbers working in two-man teams targeting 41 ATMs in three cities from July 9 to 11. The thieves were seen walking away with bags full of stolen cash in just five to 10 minutes.
The three jailed yesterday were arrested in Taipei and northeast Yilan County several days after the heist. Most of the stolen money was recovered.
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