--- description: A prominent cybersecurity firm says that thieves have infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries over the past two years title: International Hackers Have Stollen $1 Billion From Banks image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfce72de128778e27/69877f632dce014f9c9dd8f8/460595050.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Hacking](/tag/hacking/) ## Hacking Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hackers Steal $1 Billion in Massive, Worldwide Breach by [Matt Vella](/author/matt-vella/) ## Matt Vella Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 15, 2015 8:13 PM CUT  Customers use automated teller machines (ATM), operated by OAO Sberbank, left, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, center, and Alfa Bank, right, inside the O'Key hypermarket in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014\. Russia's retail-sales growth unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in six months as people snapped up consumer goods out of concern prices will rise further amid the country's worst currency crisis since 1998\. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Blooomberg Customers use automated teller machines (ATM), operated by OAO Sberbank, left, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, center, and Alfa Bank, right, inside the O'Key hypermarket in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014\. Russia's retail-sales growth unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in six months as people snapped up consumer goods out of concern prices will rise further amid the country's worst currency crisis since 1998\. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/BlooombergBloomberg/Getty Images by [Matt Vella](/author/matt-vella/) ## Matt Vella Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 15, 2015 8:13 PM CUT Hackers have stolen as much as $1 billion from banks around the world, according to a prominent cybersecurity firm. In a report scheduled to be delivered Monday, Russian security company Kaspersky Lab claims that a hacking ring has infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries over the past two years. Kaspersky says digital thieves gained access to banks’ computer systems through phishing schemes and other confidence scams. Hackers then lurked in the institutions’ systems, taking screen shots or even video of employees at work. Once familiar with the banks’ operations, the hackers could steal funds without raising alarms, programming ATMs to dispense money at specific times for instance or transferring funds to fraudulent accounts. [First outlined by the _New York Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/bank-hackers-steal-millions-via-malware.html?ref=business&%5Fr=0 "undefined"), the report will be presented Monday at a security conference in Mexico. The hackers seem to limit their scores to about $10 million before moving on to another bank, Kaspersky principal security researcher Vicente Diaz [told the Associated Press](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/bank-hack%5Fn%5F6688268.html "undefined"). This helps avoid detection; the crimes appear to be motivated primarily by financial gain. “In this case they are not interested in information. They’re only interested in the money,” he said. “They’re flexible and quite aggressive and use any tool they find useful for doing whatever they want to do.” \[[New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/world/bank-hackers-steal-millions-via-malware.html?ref=business&%5Fr=0 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3710529/hackers-1-billion-bank-breach/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3710529/hackers-1-billion-bank-breach/"},"headline":"Hackers Steal $1 Billion in Massive, Worldwide Breach","datePublished":"2015-02-15T20:13:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:04:26.341Z","description":"A prominent cybersecurity firm says that thieves have infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries over the past two years","url":"https://time.com/3710529/hackers-1-billion-bank-breach/","keywords":["Hacking","Tech","hackers","theft","Banking"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfce72de128778e27/69877f632dce014f9c9dd8f8/460595050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Matt Vella","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/matt-vella/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfce72de128778e27/69877f632dce014f9c9dd8f8/460595050.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Russian Retail-Sales Growth Unexpectedly Gains Amid Ruble Crisis","caption":"Russian Retail-Sales Growth Unexpectedly Gains Amid Ruble Crisis","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/hacking/","name":"Hacking"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3710529/hackers-1-billion-bank-breach/","name":"Hackers Steal $1 Billion in Massive, Worldwide Breach"}}]}] ```