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Spyware gang gets jail sentences

Long jail terms have been handed to a gang that used spyware to steal logging details of banking staff in a bid to carry out what would have been one of the biggest bank heists in history.

The gang, which was led by a lord who purchased his lordship title, was jailed for its part in the Japanese bank Sumitomo cyber heist in 2004, which would have ended in the theft of £229 million.

Hugh Rodley of Gloucestershire, was jailed for eight years while four other gang members made up of hackers and a bank insider were jailed for between three and four years.

The hackers were smuggled into the building by the bank insider, a security supervisor, where they compromised the online security of the bank's computers by installing the spyware.

However, the plot, which has been described as "bold and sophisticated", came apart when the gang made "field logging errors", court officials said.

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