While the rest of the world was making resolutions and sleeping off a night of partying, a South African cybercrime gang rang in the New Year by stealing more than $5 million from a government bank.
In a 72-hour span ending shortly after 6:00 a.m. Jan. 3, the crooks made off with 42 million rand (about $5.2 million) from the state-owned Postbank, part of the South African Post Office that holds about 4 billion rand in deposits, the South African newspaper Times Live reported.
South Africa's National Intelligence Agency and the police have launched an investigation but no suspects have been named. The bank said none of its more than 4 million customers were affected.
The high-tech heist began in the end of December, when members of the criminal gang began opening accounts across the country with Postbank. Over the New Year holiday break, the syndicate infiltrated a Rustenberg Post Office employee's computer. From there, the crooks were able to access Postbank's server and make fraudulent deposits to the numerous accounts they'd just set up.