Alleged UK Bank Hacker Extradited From Germany

U.K. officials have extradited the man who allegedly masterminded a cyberattack earlier this year that impacted two of England’s biggest banks. They have accused 29-year-old Daniel Kaye, who was found in Germany, of using an infected computer network to damage and blackmail both Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, The Financial Times reported.

Following the cyberattack, Lloyds found its digital services crippled on and off for over 48 hours in January 2017, preventing some customers from being able to check their bank balances or send out payments via the network. The assault was a distributed “denial of service” (DDoS) attack, which overwhelms a firm’s website so its services don’t operate properly. The same month, Barclays fought off their own cyberattack, according to the National Crime Agency.

These cybercrime attacks occurred just months following a high-profile cyberattack against Tesco Bank that caused 9,000 people to have their money stolen from accounts. HSBC also saw an attack against its personal banking website and mobile app in 2016, causing thousands of customers to be locked out of their accounts.

“The investigation leading to these charges was complex and crossed borders,” said Luke Wyllie, the National Crime Agency’s senior operations manager. “Our cybercrime officers have analyzed reams of data on the way. Cybercrime is not victimless, and we are determined to bring suspects before the courts,” the Financial Times reported.

Daniel Kaye is also being accused of operating a cyberattack against Liberia’s largest internet provider, Lonestar MTN. Kaye is scheduled to appear in the U.K.’s Westminster Magistrates Court on Aug. 31.

“In January, we were the target of a substantial distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack,” Lloyds Banking Group said in remarks according to news by the Financial Times. “This was successfully defended but resulted in intermittent and temporary service issues for some customers. There was no attempt to access the bank’s systems and no customer details or accounts were compromised.”