Russian police busts group of hackers infecting 16,000 smartphones

MOSCOW, Nov 27 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service have stopped illegal activities of a group of hackers who infected 16,000 smartphones with viruses to steal money from banking cards of subscribers, the ministry’s spokeswoman Yelena Alekseyeva said Friday.

The hackers stole money “from accounts of clients of one of the largest Russian banks,” Alekseyeva said without naming the bank.

The police detected the group that made illegal transfers from banking cards of clients in the Yaroslavl Region, in the European part of the country, and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, on the Volga. Checks revealed that the group’s activities expanded beyond these regions; in particular, they acted also in Ukraine.

“In order to commit thefts, the group’s members used malware for smartphones, working on Android, that allowed them within a short period of time to create a botnet, consisting of more than 16,000 discredited mobile devices,” Alekseyeva said.

The police found out that the group was organized by a 35-year old citizen of Yaroslavl, who was detained and put under arrest.

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