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Cyber crime has steadily been on the rise, but a crime of this magnitude could never have been even imagined before! In mid 2004, a gang of Internet robbers tried to swindle $ 423 million from Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui banks, and planned to carry the execution out from their London branches. The robbers intended to use hacking software to retrieve secret data n passwords and then electronically transfer the amount into several globally. The criminals almost got away with the plan, when the cyber cops stepped in at the last moment to save the day. The operation was names Operation Blossom and was carried out by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit in October 2004. Had the robbery not been foiled, it would set a new record, overhauling the previous record of $50 million dollars being stolen by armed robbers from a British bank.

Detectives concluded that the robbers had taken help of an internet program called “keyloggers” that helped retrieve hidden and secret data from personal or shared computers. With keyloggers, the hackers got access to the passwords and thus were able to take money out of the accounts. The question however arises, that how did the hackers manage to get that far? How did they have access to the computers of the bank? Experts are not ruling out possibilities of the robbers duping an employee of the bank into providing them help. They also believe the hackers could have simply walked in to the bank and used an unattended computer. The robbers may have also been lucky to discover that the computers were infected with keyloggers from beforehand.

Ever since the racket was brought to notice, the cyber cops have detained 8 people, including an Israeli citizen who was arrested for having transferred $27 million into an Israeli account. The cops have not divulged any information about the remaining seven culprits as the investigations are still in progress.

It’s about the time the world woke up to some cyber crime awareness. At the alarming rate at which cyber crime is increasing, it is only time for the lawmakers to get aware. One of the reasons for the popularity of cyber crimes may be that the robber feels more secured carrying out the robbery from his own home, without having to personally go down and battle a number of physical obstacles, before looting the money. What is even more alarming is the way skilled hackers are preparing software and viruses that help lesser skilled hackers to operate. With so much risk around, every computer and internet user must exercise extra caution to ensure their own security.