The Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) arrested eight men, aged between 24 and 27, on Thursday, in connection to a robbery from the Swiss Cottage branch of Barclays Bank in April. According to police statements, the theft resulted in the loss of 1.3 million pounds ($2 million), but the bank managed to recover most of the stolen funds.



In an unusual twist, one rarely mentioned or seen when it comes to financially motivated cybercrime, the men allegedly mixed physical penetration and social engineering with system compromise in order to carry out their crimes. When Barclays reported the robbery in April, police investigated the incident, and conducted a search of the Swiss Cottage Barclays branch in North London. During this search, investigators discovered a KVM switch attached to a 3G router hooked up to one of the branch computers.



"It was later established that the previous day a male purporting to be an IT engineer had gained access to the branch, falsely stating he was there to fix computers. He had then deployed the KVM device. This enabled the criminal group to remotely transfer monies to predetermined back accounts under the control of the criminal group," a PCeU statement explained.

 

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It is time the banks tightened their security.