The recent reports have stated that ATM hackers have found a new home in the U.S. The country has now become the popular target for ATM Hackers. Various cash-out crimes are being frequently reported.
These attacks are called jackpotting attacks. The hackers get into the ATMs to spit out all of the cash inside.
This has been happening all over world but has gone up in the regions of the U.S. and Latin America according to the joint investigation done by Motherboard and German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk. It is being said that large-scale ATM cash-out hacking is mostly an overseas criminal enterprise.
A cyber security publication, Krebs on Security, has explained how this system works. The intruders will remove many fraud controls at the financial institution just before executing on ATM cash-outs. Fraud controls like maximum withdrawal amounts and any limits on the number of customer ATM transactions daily, such controls are removed prior to the theft.
The criminals use malware or hardware to get an ATM to dispense cash with jackpotting. The ATM attacks continue to reap financial rewards for their perpetrators. This means they will not let it go and one shouldn’t expect them too. Many ATMs are essentially ancient Windows machines meaning they are very old and thus too slow. This is becoming a weak point and something the banks and government needs to work on.
The hackers last year broke into computers at an Indian bank and walked off with $11.5 million in unauthorized ATM withdrawals. This happened after the FBI issued a warning about the imminent scheme.