Police Foil $423m Cyber Robbery

Thursday, March 17, 2005 Posted: 6:27 AM EST (1127 GMT)

LONDON, England -- An attempt to steal a reported $423 million from a Japanese bank in London has been foiled, according to British police.

Cyber thieves intended to transfer the sum electronically to 10 bank accounts around the world after hacking into the computer system at Sumitomo Mitsui's London offices, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

But the plot was uncovered by the British police's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) before any of the transfers took place.

The Financial Times said the gang accessed Sumitomo's systems using software which captures every key stroke on a computer to gather secret information such as passwords and account numbers.