Security
European ATM losses from black box fraud pass the $1M mark
October 13, 2020
The European Association for Secure Transactions is reporting a sharp rise in black box attacks on European ATMs during the first six months of 2020.
A black box attack happens when the connection of an unauthorized device sends dispense commands directly to the ATM, in order to 'cash-out' or 'jackpot' the machine.
EAST reported, in a news release on its site, that ATM malware and logical attacks against cash machines are up 269%, from 35 to 129, and all the reported attacks were black box attacks. Related losses were up from less than €1,000 ($1,179), to just over €1 million ($1,179 million).
Financial institutions had greater success in stopping more established fraudulent activity. Terminal related fraud attacks were down 66% (from 10,723 to 3,631 incidents), card skimming was down to an all-time low (from 731 to 321 incidents) and transaction reversal fraud at ATMs decreased by 97% (down from 3,405 to just 108 incidents).
Total losses of €109 million ($128 million) were reported, down 12% from the €124 million ($146 million) reported during the same period in 2019.
Brute force physical attacks on machines were down 23% (from 2,376 to 1,829 incidents). Attacks due to ram raids and ATM burglary were down 34% (from 610 to 405 incidents), and ATM explosive attacks (including explosive gas and solid explosive attacks) were up 0.4% (from 503 to 505 incidents).
Losses due to ATM related physical attacks were €12.6 million, ($148 million), an 11% increase from the €11.4 million ($13.4 million) reported during the same period in 2019. This increase was driven by a rise in losses due to explosive and gas attacks, which were up 49% from €5.1 million ($6 million) to €7.6 million ($8.9 million).
