How Carbanak was stopped

[Cloned Boy]

The Carbanak group (also known as FIN7) was one of the most sophisticated cybercriminal organizations that attacked banks and financial institutions from 2013 to 2018. Their attacks caused $1.2+ billion in damage. Here's how they were stopped:

Who are Carbanak?​

• Purpose: Stealing money through hacking banking systems, ATM jackpots, manipulating databases.
• Methods:
  • Phishing emails with malicious attachments (Carbanak Backdoor).
  • Penetration into bank networks via RDP and software vulnerabilities.
  • ATM control via malware (forced money issuance).
  • Changing account balances ("accounting attacks").

How were they identified and neutralized?​

1. Kaspersky Lab Investigation (2015)

• Detection: Kaspersky analysts noticed anomalous activity in banks in 30+ countries.
• Malware features:
  • Hidden in the memory of the svchost.exe process.
  • Took screenshots of banking systems to study the logic of operations.
  • Used legitimate IT tools (such as PsExec) to move around the network.

2. Coordination with Interpol and Europol

• Operation Avalanche (2016):
  • Arrest of botnet servers used by Carbanak.
  • Blocking domains and C&C servers.

3. Arrests of Key Members (2018–2021)

• Spain, USA, Ukraine:
  • The leaders of the group (including Dmitry Smirnov and Andrey Kolpakov) were detained.
  • The FBI and Spanish police used data from Microsoft, Kaspersky and banks.
• Proof:
  • Telegram chat logs (operative errors).
  • Contact the Darkode hacker forum.

4. Technical errors of hackers

• Using personal emails to register C&C domains.
• Code leaks (for example, Russian-language comments in scripts).

Results of the operation​

• Damage: $1.2+ billion (100+ banks in 40 countries).
• Arrests: 50+ people, 3 key leaders sentenced to 7-10 years.
• Consequences:
  • Banks have tightened controls over RDP access.
  • Implementation of behavioral analysis (AI for anomaly detection).

What did the Carbanak case teach us?​

1. Social engineering is the weak link. Phishing remains the main attack vector.
2. Logging everything. Log analysis helped track the hackers' movements.
3. International cooperation. Without Interpol and private companies, the capture would not have been possible.

If you want to see other high-profile cases (for example, Cobalt Group), let me know!