Computer Criminal Sentenced in the Crimea

The Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Kirovske rayon in the Crimea received a statement by a governor of a local branch of Bank Ukrayina, accusing senior programming engineer Vitaly Barmashov of stealing a considerable sum of money. District Prosecutor Oleksandr Shyhonin has been investigating not only economic crimes experts of the Crimean Department of the Internal Affairs Ministry, but also financiers and specialists on bank computer networks, peninsular Public Prosecutor’s Office press service Anatoly Tytarchuk told The Day.

At the initial stage of the investigation prosecutors had merely assumptions of how Barmashov stole the money. They took special pains to check the bank’s computer networks. Barmashov graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk College of Automation and Telemechanics and was an expert in computerized complexes and networks, having worked as senior programmer engineer for the bank since 1995.

Barmashov had complete knowledge of how the bank’s computer network operated. Moreover, as an employee of the department of automation, he was in the bank’s security service department and possessed information on cash flow involving bank accounts of legal and natural persons. After three years with the bank, Barmashov became aware of the fact that some clients did not use their bank accounts for lengthy periods of time. In addition, the bank switched over from savings bankbooks to magnetic cards. Some of the bank’s clients did not have their bankbooks replaced due to their death, emigration from Ukraine for permanent residence abroad, or other reasons. Having analyzed the cash flow involving such dead accounts, Barmashov decided to take advantage of such accounts to steal money. Since he was responsible for storing used magnetic cards, by replacing the codes on magnetic cards for the codes of the dead accounts, he gained access to the client computerized servicing system. This kind of access excluded his disclosure, as the system registered only the client’s code from the magnetic card. Such replacement was the initial stage of the theft.

The major problem was how to get the cash, but some creative improvisation helped him to pass this hurdle, enabling him to use the cash desks of his bank to withdraw money from his bogus account for quite some time. Interestingly, this bank had regular audits, and the balance was made at the end of each work day but still the thefts did not come to light. According to Barmashov, his future plans included cashing in on the hryvnia inflation to refund the stolen money to the bank. The hacker, however, ran out of luck, because since 1998 inflation had been low and it proved beyond his means to compensate losses to the bank. Barmashov stole 4,453 hryvnias, his total damage to Ukrayina.

Faced with irrefutable evidence, Barmashov admitted his guilt. Convicted on criminal charges, Barmashov was fined a large sum of money and has to reimburse the losses he inflicted on the bank.

In the final analysis, it should be mentioned that the new Criminal Code of Ukraine that came into force as of September 1, 2001 includes a number of articles imposing liability for crimes involving computers and computerized systems. As Anatoly TYTARCHUK summed it up for The Day, “The crimes of the future taking place in the virtual space will entail concrete responsibility.”