Eastern European hackers are systematically breaking into Danish online bank accounts and emptying them of funds. So far, some 8,000 online banking customers have had their online accounts closed.

One of them, Annette Warming, was shocked on December 27, to find that what had previously been an account showing DKK 64,800 (EUR 9,000) in credit, showed a resounding zero.

“We are doing the best we can to be on guard and discover the attacks. But the fact of the matter is that all online banking customers with a PC that is not fully updated are in the risk zone,” Danish Bankers Association spokeswoman Birgitte Mikkelsen tells Politiken.

Old programmes
Some 3.3 million Danes, out of a population of 5.5 million, currently use online banking. Many of them are at risk simply because they have not updated all of the programmes on their PC.

Where previous hacker risks took place because people opened an attached, infected file – the new method of attack takes place without the user being aware of any incursion.

Hackers can use a gateway in an un-updated programme such as iTunes, a PDF reader or Java to lodge spyware which waits until the user keys in an online banking code. The code is then sent to a hacker who is able to log in to bank accounts and transfer funds to another account.

Responsibility
“There is a major risk here because the user doesn’t know that he or she is vulnerable. The banks do a lot in the battle against hackers, but the user must take responsibility for his or her own computer security,” says Peter Kruse of the Csis company, which cooperates with Danish banks to increase security.

The F-secure company, which produces security programmes for Danish banks says that the current spate of attacks comes from countries where Russian is spoken.

“These people should not be underestimated. They are in major companies abroad who design attacks,” says F-secure Channel Manager Michael Dahl.

Tracked to Russian-speakers
In 2007, Danish banks reported some 85 online banking break-ins. In 2008 that figure had risen to 156. The tally for the current spate of attacks is not yet clear.

“So, the Danes must learn to update their programmes and secure their computers in the same way that they secure their homes by locking doors when they leave home,” says Chief Inspector Henning Schmidt of the Copenhagen Police Section for Economic Crime.

Schmidt confirms that the current attack can be tracked to countries where Russian is spoken.

But the Russian, Ukrainian or Baltic hackers also use Danish mules or middlemen who make sure that the hacker gets his stolen funds.