It is one thing for hackers to swindle money from you through scams. But what if crooks would be able to retrieve cash straight of ATMS? This scenario is once again proving itself to be true. This time, in the United States of America.
ATM creators are warning about “jackpotting”
Popular cartoons and movies have shown exciting moments when an ATM starts spitting out dollar bills everywhere. According to two of the most credible ATM manufacturers in the world, this is actually a realistic representation of the modern world. By using a technique dubbed “jackpotting”, crooks could be lucky enough to force ATMS to give them money.
Creators of compromised ATMs explained that there are numerous ways how hackers can put these devices in danger. They can gain physical access, replace hard drives and etc.
Good news for bank clients is that specific bank accounts are not targeted. All of the losses are considered as damages to the bank itself. Therefore, security researchers and ATM manufacturers are attempting to educate bank employees about the dangers of jackpotting.
First ATM-hijacking attempts in the US, but not in the world
The warnings about this strategy started to circulate last Saturday when Krebs on Security reported ATM hacks. Researchers indicated that authorities of the United States were being secretive about this “jackpotting” technique. Our prediction is that the official public warnings were delayed in order not to cause panic. While this money-stealing strategy is not innovative, it had never been applied to ATMs in US. Jackpotting has been reported in Europe and Asia, but never in America.
It also reported that these type of ATM-hijacking attempts are gradually increasing. Of course, it is understandable that banks are not very eager to go public with this information. If one hacker was able to compromise an ATM device, what is there to stop the next crook from doing the same? Therefore, information about these attacks has to be handled very delicately in order not to cause a long string of similar incidents.
Of course, these attacks are very high-risk, but also high-reward. If crooks are able to pull them off, they could be looking at huge profits. However, specialists indicate that it is not that difficult to track the jackpotting attack to its source.
In a world where almost anything can be hacked, it is important to protect everything you are capable of securing. Since regular users have very little power to stop jackpotting, they should try to protect their online banking accounts: do not reveal your personal information to unknown sources, always make sure that you do not sign up for suspicious third-party services and use banking details wisely in general.
Source: zdnet.com
