News

NCR, WinMagic partnership puts a stop to ATM jackpotting malware

NCR Secure Hard Disk Encryption uses WinMagic's preboot authentication solution to ensure that malware can't be uploaded to an offline ATM.

December 15, 2015

NCR Corp. and WinMagic Inc., a Canadian provider of encryption and intelligent key management solutions, has teamed with NCR to prevent offline malware attacks on ATMs.

According to a news release, NCR Secure Hard Disk Encryption, powered by WinMagic SecureDoc, will be offered as an optional security upgrade for many NCR and multivendor ATMs. It will also be available as a security option for all new NCR ATMs.

The new solution uses WinMagic PBConnex preboot network authentication to ensure that the ATM is authenticated before its OS decrypts and loads. This makes it impossible for a fraudster to insert malware or access local data. The system has passed rigorous testing on NCR ATMs, the companies said.

"NCR Secure Hard Disk Encryption will help ensure that malware cannot be added to an ATM's hard disk when it is offline," John Morrow, VP and general manager of NCR management and security solutions, said in the release. "This will help to prevent the offline malware attacks such as Ploutus, Tyupkin and PADPIN cashing out an ATM.

"Moreover, NCR Secure Hard Disk Encryption will protect against ATM cores or hard disks being stolen and used to reverse engineer ATM software or harvest data on the hard disk. This solution will form a vital component of our security offering, allowing our customers to benefit from WinMagic's expertise in encryption management and safeguarding data."

In addition to protecting ATMs, NCR Secure Hard Disk Encryption provides centralized monitoring capabilities and real-time network status updates to provide early warning of a potential attacks at any given ATM.

"Like many Internet of Things devices, ATMs must boot without a trusted user present," said Darin Welfare, WinMagic VP for EMEA. "Using a locally stored or derived encryption key to authenticate the machine would not be PCI compliant and [would] expose the machine to offline threats. Using our encryption and preboot authentication expertise, the NCR solution protects ATMs from offline threats while reducing the administration burden."