Russians charged with using Carberp Trojan to gather greater than £1m

Eight people were arrested in Russia on suspicion of stealing greater than 60 million rubles (£1.3m) from no less than 90 bank accounts.

According to blogger and University of Alabama director of analysis in computer forensics Gary Warner, the boys are accused of using the Carberp Trojan that grants remote-control access to infected computers to steal data from them or to mask the origin of different attacks. The boys weren't named but are Moscow residents aged between 26 and 29.

The Russian authorities said they've been tracking the lads since October 2011, and considered one of them was a known criminal with a record concerning real-estate fraud.

A press release from the Ministry of Internal Affairs said the stolen money was held in numerous accounts and finally withdrawn at various ATMs in Moscow.

The men are accused of getting rented an office; confiscated equipment included computers regarded as used to spread the malware and access the victims' computers, and plenty of credit cards, in addition to cash and "every kind of documentation".

The malware was distributed by hacking into popular web pages, including those of a few prominent newspapers, and leaving 'traps'. 

Warner said: “It shouldn't be known at the present how this arrest will impact other use of the Carberp Trojan. The Trojan remains active, with criminals continuing to exploit the shortage of enforcement of domain name registration rules, and the gullibility of human computer users.”

Paul Ferguson, senior threat researcher at Trend Micro, said this was "welcome news" and renewed "optimism on international cyber crime prosecutions".

He said: “I just desired to talk about that that is yet one more great example of international collaboration between both private industry research and international law enforcement. I certainly hope that we see more of this one day, in order that serious internet criminals don't think that they're outside the reach of the long arm of the law.

“We applaud the efforts and actions of the Russian authorities as a consequence, and we are hoping to determine more international co-operative efforts to bring cyber criminals to justice around the globe.”

Trend Micro's threat research into Carberp found victims in government, industry and academia. Ferguson described Carberp as a "particularly nasty" banking Trojan with the potential to put in itself without administrator privileges, effectively defeating Windows 7 and Vista's User Account Control feature.