Three eastern Europeans jailed for five years in Taiwan over US$2.6 million ATM heist

Three eastern Europeans were jailed for five years in Taiwan on Wednesday over a US$2.6 million cyberheist that used malware to hack into a major local bank’s ATM network.

The attack, the first of its kind in Taiwan, targeted the First Commercial Bank’s ATM network in July and saw money withdrawn from dozens of machines in three cities.

The suspects had uncovered a security loophole in a server at the bank’s London branch office and used it to plant the malware, according to Taiwanese authorities.

Latvian Andrejs Peregudovs, together with Mihail Colibaba from Romania and Niklae Penkov from Moldova, were convicted of causing damage to the public by breaching computer security, said the Taipei district court.

They were also each fined NT$600,000 (US$19,000) and would be deported after completing their sentences, the court said. They can appeal against the ruling.

Prosecutors had sought 12-year jail terms, saying that their multiple actions had “seriously disrupted financial order and caused public panic”.