The FBI has charged nearly 100 people in the U.S. and Egypt as part of “Operation Phish Phry,” one of the largest cyber fraud phishing investigations ever.
The people charged in Operation Phish Phry targeted U.S. banks and victimized hundreds of account holders by stealing their financial information and using it to transfer around $1.5 million to bogus accounts they controlled.
More than 50 people in California, Nevada, and North Carolina, nearly 50 Egyptian people have been charged with crimes including computer fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.
Robert Mueller, FBI Director
“The FBI is both a law enforcement and national security agency, which means we can and must address every angle of a cyber case,” said Robert Mueller, FBI Director.
“This is critical, because what may start as a criminal investigation may lead to a national security threat. At the start of a cyber investigation, we do not know whether we are dealing with a spy, a company insider, or an organized criminal group.”
Mueller described the current environment as a “cyber arms race,” where law enforcement and criminals compete to stay one step ahead of each other.
In the case of Operation Phish Phry, money appears to be the driving motive, which on the surface seems obvious. But Mueller pointed out,” Something that looks like an ordinary phishing scam may be an attempt by a terrorist group to raise funding for an operation.”
“Cyber crime might not seem real until it hits you,” Mueller said. “But every personal, academic, corporate, and government network plays a role in national security.”
