Moscow cracks down on cybercrime

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    Date: 
    23 March 2010

    San Francisco, U.S. (FT) -- Russia has quietly arrested several suspects in one of the world's worst cyberbank heists, raising hopes of a previously unseen level of official co-operation in a country that has been a haven for criminals.

    The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) detained suspects including Viktor Pleshchuk, one of the alleged masterminds behind a $9m attack on the payment processing unit of the Royal Bank of Scotland, people familiar with the inquiry told the Financial Times.

    The FSB asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S., which has made the probe one of its top international priorities, to keep silent on the arrests to avoid scaring other targets in Russia into covering their tracks.