4 phone-hack arrests tied to terror group

Four people have been arrested in the Philippines for allegedly hacking into AT&T customers' phones in the United States as part of a plan to funnel money to a Saudi-based terror group, according to police.

The Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said it worked with the FBI to arrest the suspects last week. The hackers, according to investigators, worked for a group that helped finance a deadly 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.

AT&T's systems weren't compromised but some of its customers were targeted, company spokeswoman Jan Rasmussen said Saturday. AT&T cooperated in the investigation with the FBI, she said.

AT&T wrote off some fraudulent charges on customers' bills, but Rasmussen wouldn't say how much. Philippine police said the alleged hacking cost AT&T $2 million.

AT&T said last week that hackers tried to link mobile numbers with online customer accounts, but it wouldn't say Saturday if that incident was linked to the Philippine arrests.

The hackers were working for a terrorist group linked to Muhammad Zamir, Philippine police said. Zamir, a Pakistani, was arrested in Italy in 2007 and charged with running a call center that collected money from calls routed through hacked phone lines. He also allegedly sold international access codes for long distance calls that were gathered by the hackers.

Since then, police said, Zamir's group has been taken over by a Saudi national.

Philippine police didn't name the group.