Russian Court Hears Case Against Mystery RBS Hacker

Another member of the hacking crew responsible for the $9.4m heist of RBS WorldPay is going to court in Russia, according to a local media report. A court in Novosibirsk, Russia, is taking up the case of a previously unnamed member of crew of hackers that is accused of stealing $9.4 million from RBS WorldPay, the U.S. based payment processing division of The Royal Bank of Scotland, according to a media report.

A criminal case against Eugene Anikin was forwarded to Zaeltsovskiy District Court in Novosibirsk for consideration. Anikin is believed to be the defendant referred to as "Hacker 3," one of eight individuals named in a criminal indictment filed in U.S. District Court in November, 2009, and accused of withdrawing cash from automated teller machines in 280 cities around the world.

Anikin's name did not appear on that indictment, leading to speculation that he is the individual referred to as "Hacker 3" on the indictment.

Another member of the same group, Victor Pleschuka, was sentenced to six years in prison by a court in St. Petersburg in August. Pleschuka and others in the hacking ring were accused of carrying out a sophisticated attack against RBS.

As reported by ThreatPost, the crew allegedly broke into the network of RBS WorldPay and compromised a database containing account information for employee debit cards, which are used by some companies in lieu of traditional paychecks. The hackers then raised the credit and withdrawal limits on the accounts attached to the cards and forged 44 counterfeit cards which were distributed to a ring of "cashers" to use to withdraw cash from ATMs in November, 2008.

According to reports from Russian media, Anikin received stolen bank account information from Pleschuka and gave it to other unidentified persons, who produced the fake bank cards.