News

Thieves infect ATMs with malware via USB drives

December 31, 2013

At the Chaos Computing Congress in Hamburg, Germany, details were revealed about a July attack on European ATMs.

According to the BBC, thieves drilled holes into ATM enclosures, then loaded malware onto the machines via USB drives. The holes were then plugged up to conceal the damage.

Once the malware was live, the thieves were able to enter a 12-digit code into the PIN pad, which triggered a special interface. From there, they were able to view the contents of the machine, and make withdrawals.

From the report:

But the crimes' masterminds appeared to be concerned that some of their gang might take the drives and go solo.

To counter this risk the software required the thief to enter a second code in response to numbers shown on the ATM's screen before they could release the money.

The correct response varied each time and the thief could only obtain the right code by phoning another gang member and telling them the numbers displayed.

Read more about ATM security.