Cyber Hack · BBC World Service

The Lazarus Heist S2: 2. Big Boss

April 2, 2023·33 min·2 clips

A North Korean hacking operation gave its local street handler a laptop to monitor ATM withdrawals in real time — so he could slap any mule who tried to pocket extra cash.

An ATM becomes a moral test. Someone checks an account, sees too much money, and has to choose between warning the bank or grabbing the cash. In India, some people grab it. Inspector General Rajesh Singh describes people realizing they could withdraw almost any amount, then pushing their luck with bigger pulls. But the street scene does not stay small for long. The robbery stops being a story about lucky customers and starts looking like the visible edge of a coordinated bank attack. The host follows the lower ranks, where these cases often land hardest. The small fry are easier to catch. The bigger operators are much harder to touch. That pattern feels grimly familiar when North Koreans are alleged to be involved. The Cosmos Bank case presses right on that bruise. Indian police still want more international cooperation to trace the funds and catch all the perpetrators, but accomplices across borders are a different problem. Geography helps the scheme. Cash comes out in one country while the victim bank sits in another, and that split slows everything down. Other police forces have their own cases and little reason to prioritize a robbery involving a bank from somewhere else. North Korea has never admitted involvement. The BBC says it put the allegations to the North Korean embassy in London and got no response for this season. A previous letter from Ambassador Choi Il called United States hacking accusations a farce aimed at tarnishing his country's image. The episode ends with the imbalance left intact. The people nearest the machines may be caught, while the suspected architects stay out of reach.

As heard by us

A bank heist story that follows the money across borders and keeps the masterminds frustratingly out of reach.

The episode opens with an ATM balance that does not add up, then follows the Cosmos Bank raid in India as Inspector General Rajesh Singh and the Pune cyber unit try to track money that is already moving across borders.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

An ATM balance glitch opens into a cross-border cybercrime story built around the Cosmos Bank raid in India.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Cyber Hack