Hackers steal $11 million from Nigeria, other countries

About $11 million has been stolen by the cyber gang OPERA1ER from businesses in Argentina, Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, and 11 other African nations.

This is consistent with the most recent report from cybersecurity company Group-IB, "OPERA1ER: Playing God without Permission," which was produced in partnership with Orange CERT Coordination Center researchers.

The company claimed that between 2018 and 2022, the gang successfully conducted over 30 intrusions, which were tracked by digital forensic artifacts that were examined by it and Orange.

According to the company's research, Ivory Coast-based businesses were the most frequently targeted.

The report claimed that although the amount the hackers allegedly stole has been estimated at $11 million, they may have actually stolen up to $30 million.

It stated, “The report takes a deep dive into financially motivated attacks of the prolific French-speaking threat actor, codenamed OPERA1ER.

“Despite relying solely on known ‘off-the-shelf’ tools, the gang managed to carry out more than 30 successful attacks against banks, financial services, and telecommunication companies mainly located in Africa between 2018 and 2022. OPERA1ER is confirmed to have stolen at least $11m, according to Group-IB’s estimates.

“One of OPERA1ER’s attacks involved a vast network of 400 mule accounts for fraudulent money withdrawals. Researchers from the Group-IB European Threat Intelligence Unit identified and reached out to 16 affected organizations so they could mitigate the threat and prevent further attacks by OPERA1ER.”

The report was finished in 2021, during the threat actor's active phase, according to the company. "Deep investigation of the gang's previous operations revealed an intriguing pattern in their mode of operation: OPERA1ER performs attacks primarily during the weekends or public holidays," stated Rustam Mirkasymov, head of cyber threat research at Group-IB Europe.

“It correlates with the fact that they spend from 3 to 12 months from the initial access to money theft. It was established that the French-speaking hacker group could operate from Africa. The exact number of the gang members is unknown.”

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