While some hackers help businesses directly, others do so indirectly. Take the case of Vladimir Levin. In 1994, he staged a bank robbery unlike any we have seen before. It didn’t require any guns or bullets. Merely a laptop and the dial-up internet.

Levin and a small group of hackers dove into Citibank and managed to get into Citibank’s dial-up wire transfer service and begin to transfer funds to various accounts. When Citibank noticed that money was being moved to an account in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel, the bank called authorities.

Police eventually traced the wire transfers and captured three individuals of Levin’s group who then pointed to Levin. Though since he was in Russia, they were unable to extract Levin from Russia to the United States.

That battle to extract Levin to the United States took 30 long months before he was finally brought in from a London airport after being captured by Scotland Yard. He was later tried and found guilty on one count of conspiracy and defraud, and to stealing $3.7 million. That was despite the groups hacking efforts managed to steal $10.7 million.

While we don’t know what happened to Levin after he was sent to prison, his actions served as a wake up call to banks. His own actions were what led to tightened security measures on a bank level. Especially since the bank only was able to recover about $400,000 of the money Levin and his group stole.

What this change brought was encryption cards, secure door locks, and in general encrypted data. This historic hack was a reminder to businesses that they best be one step ahead as hackers are innovative, and creative individuals.