Eight Russian and Eastern European computer hackers were indicted this week for allegedly breaking into ATMs in hundreds of cities world-wide and stealing $9 million.

The indictments were announced Tuesday in the brazen electronic-bank heist. One man was arrested in Estonia and is awaiting extradition. The others are believed to be at large. The U.S. Justice Department indicted eight Russian and Eastern European computer hackers, alleging they were part of a crime ring that broke into ATMs in hundreds of cities world-wide and stole $9 million in a matter of hours.

The hack attack involved a complex system to crack a computer system at RBS WorldPay Inc., the U.S. payment processing division of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, and clone prepaid ATM cards. The fake cards were used to withdraw cash from more than 2,000 ATMs from 280 cities around the world, including the U.S. It was a synchronized attack on Nov. 8, 2008, that took less than 12 hours to accomplish and absconded with $9 million.

"More money is stolen electronically or [in] data breaches than through bank robberies," Shawn Henry, assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cyber Division, told the Wall Street Journal.

The hackers clearly knew what they were doing. They targeted payroll debit cards that companies issue employees for withdrawing their salaries. When the hackers entered the systems, they boosted the maximum allowed withdrawal, according to the indictment.

This kind of worldwide hacking scheme is becoming the norm, not the exception, in cybercrime around the world. For a scheme that began far from the U.S., it could have had a major impact on payroll systems in this country and others. The Justice Department worked with authorities in countries from Estonia to Hong Kong. Henry declined to say how the ring was organized, but he did say some rings become virtual organized-crime groups.

For more on this cybercrime:
- see this Wall Street Journal article

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