U.S. to announce arrest of Ukrainian hackers: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have secured the arrests of several Ukrainians charged with stealing massive troves of payment card numbers and other data from American businesses, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

A man holds a laptop computer as cyber code is projected on him in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration

The suspects are members of Carbanak, a hacking gang that law enforcement and private cyber investigators say is one of the world’s most prolific cyber crime organizations, according to the sources who were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of a U.S. Justice Department announcement planned for later on Wednesday.

The sources told Reuters about the arrests ahead of a 10 a.m. briefing in Seattle, where the Justice Department said representatives from credit card companies Mastercard Inc and Visa Inc would join prosecutors and the FBI to disclose arrests and indictments in a major international cyber investigation.

That advisory did not identify the suspects as Ukrainian or say they were linked to Carbanak.

Spanish police arrested a suspected leader of Carbanak in March, charging that the gang stole up to 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) from banks by altering account balances and instructing automatic teller machines to spit out cash.

Reporting by Chris Bing in Washington. Editing by Jim Finkle and Bill Berkrot in New York

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