British police foil high-tech bank robbery

British foiled a high-tech attempt to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from a Japanese bank's London offices by accessing its computer system and making money transfers, authorities said on Thursday.

Israeli working with British officers, arrested a man on Wednesday in connection with the attempt to rob money from the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, police in Israel said.

Police the UK confirmed there was a "failed attempted theft" last year at the London offices of Sumitomo Mitsui but didn't say what sum was involved or how the attempt was carried out. Sumitomo Mitsui also confirmed there had been an attempted theft, but refused to give details.

"As a police investigation is under way right now, we'd like to refrain from commenting on the case," said spokesman Takashi Morita in Tokyo. "We have taken sufficient measures in terms of security and have not suffered any financial damage."

Israeli said they arrested 32-year-old Yaron Bolondi in the Tel Aviv area. He was suspected of trying to launder 20 million euros (US$26.8 million), a police statement said. A Tel Aviv magistrate remanded Bolondi in custody for seven days.

The British police's National High-Tech Crime Unit began an investigation last October after criminals accessed the computers of Sumitomo Mitsui's London branch, the Israeli statement said.

They tried unsuccessfully to transfer 219 million euro from Sumitomo Mitsui to 10 bank accounts around the world, including that of the Israeli suspect, the statement added.

The Financial Times newspaper reported that the thieves had tried to steal ?220 million (US$424 million) from Sumitomo Mitsui.

Felicity Bull, a spokeswoman for the National High-Tech Crime Unit, said police in Israel had arrested a man in connection with the case, but refused to give any additional details. She wouldn't say whether British police had made any arrests.

According to the Financial Times, the theft plan involved using keylogging software that would have enabled the thieves to track every button pressed on computer keyboards. From that they could learn account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information.

The paper said it was unclear whether the criminals gained physical access to Sumitomo Mitsui's offices or whether they installed the keylogging software by hacking into the bank's computer system from outside.

Steve Purdham, chief executive of Web security company SurfControl, said the attempted theft should alert businesses to the threat posed by keylogging and other spyware programs.

"Spyware is by no means a new threat and has been around in various forms for a number of years, but the difference now is that the criminal community is now starting to exploit it to its advantage," Purdham said.