If published media reports are to be believed, an unknown Indian hacker has aided the world's greatest cyber-heist by helping a gang steal the identities of more than eight million people that could help the thiefs net over five billion dollars in illegal funds.

This was discovered by an independent probe by Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper. There are, however, no details of how the hacker was identified as an India and whether efforts are on to trace this person. The attack led to theft of personal details of every customer who booked into Best Western's 1312 hotels since 2007. Details included home address, phone numbers, credit card details and place of work.

Thew newspaper quoted security expert Jacques Erasmus as saying that there are plenty of hacked company databases for sale online but the sheer volume and quality of the information that's been stolen in the Best Western raid makes this particularly rare.

Although the security breach was closed on Friday after Best Western was alerted by the Sunday Herald, experts fear that information seized in the raid is already being used to pursue a range of criminal strategies.

Best Western Hotels closed the breach at around 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Stressing that staff are fully aware of the potential seriousness of the attack, the company reassured customers that it is now taking appropriate action, Sunday Herald said.