News

ATM security so simple, even a child can hack it

June 9, 2014

Two ninth-graders in Winnipeg, Manitoba, recently demonstrated to the Bank of Montreal that its ATM security wasn’t quite what it ought to be.

Using an old manual they found online, Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon discovered that they could place an ATM in operator mode; during their school lunch break, they went to BMO and tried it out — successfully.

According to an article by the Winnipeg Sun, branch staff didn't believe the 14-year-olds when they first showed up to let BMO know about its ATM security issue.

So, the boys returned to the machine, repeated the procedure, and printed documentation from their exploit, including the amount of cash in the ATM, the number of withdrawals that day, and the day’s total of surcharges.

"Then I found a way to change the surcharge amount, so I changed the surcharge amount to one cent," Hewlett said.

He also changed the machine’s greeting to, "Go away. This ATM has been hacked."

That took care of the bank staff’s skepticism. The bank is now taking care of its ATM security issue, the Sun reported.