Operation High Roller Explained

Operation High Roller was a series of fraud in the banking system in different parts of the world that used cyber-collection agents in order to collect PC and smart-phone information to electronically raid bank accounts.^[1] It was dissected in 2012 by McAfee and Guardian Analytics.^[2] A total of roughly $78 million was siphoned out of bank accounts due to this attack.^[3] The attackers were operating from servers in Russia, Albania and China to carry out electronic fund transfers.^[4]

Specifications

This cyber attack is described to have the following features:^[5]

• Bypassed Chip and PIN authentication.
• Required no human participation.
• Instruction came from cloud-based servers (rather than the hacker's PC) to further hide the identity of the attacker.
• Included elements of "insider levels of understanding".
• Banks in Europe, the United States and Colombia were targeted.
• Impacted several classes of financial institution such as credit unions, large global banks, regional banks, and high-net-worth individuals.

While some sources have suggested it to be an extension of man-in-the-browser attack^[6] Operation High Roller is reported to have harnessed a more extensive level of automation distinguishing it from the traditional methods.^[7]

See also

• Bundestrojaner
• Cyber-collection
• Duqu
• Flame
• Guardian Analytics
• McAfee
• Stuxnet

External links

• Dissecting operation high roller on McAfee/Guardian Analytics report
• Operation high roller on CNN Money
• Operation high roller on Fox News report
• Operation high roller on Yahoo Finance
• Operation high roller revisited

Notes and References

1. Web site: Rachael King. Operation high roller targets corporate bank accounts. Wall Street Journal. June 26, 2012.
2. Web site: Operation high roller auto-targets bank funds. CNET News.
3. Web site: How exactly do cyber criminals steal $78 million?. Time magazine (online) Business and Money. July 3, 2012.
4. Web site: "High roller" fraud campaign persists, origin revealed. SC Magazine. Danielle Walker. October 29, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20121101053617/http://www.scmagazine.com/high-roller-fraud-campaign-persists-origin-revealed/article/265641/. 2012-11-01.
5. Web site: Operation high roller. Huffington Post. Michael Rundle. June 26, 2012.
6. Web site: "High roller" hacker attack is stealing hundreds of millions from the rich. DailyTech. June 26, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120630113854/http://www.dailytech.com/High+Roller+Hacker+Attack+is+Stealing+Hundreds+of+Millions+From+the+Rich/article25026.htm. 2012-06-30.
7. Web site: 'Operation high roller' stole from the rich to give to unknown auto-mule crims in the cloud. The Register. June 27, 2012.