Automated Teller Machines Cash-Hack Imminent, as Per an FBI Alert

As per an FBI warning, the cyber criminals will soon be coming out with a well-coordinated plan to attack the cash machines all over the world. This might result in withdrawal of huge amount of money from the bank accounts of the customers.

A confidential alert that was sent to the banks says that the scheme, called "ATM cashout", can happen just within a few hours. The confidential alert also stated that this most probably is going to happen over the weekend when the banks are closed. The scheme (ATM cashout) involves cloned cards, along with hacking of a payment processor or a bank that would facilitate fraudulent funds withdrawal by the cyber criminal gangs.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has obtained the unspecified reporting regarding the planning of cyber criminals to carry out a global ATM cashout scheme in days to come. This hacking can be attributed to unknown card issuer breach, and is commonly known as 'unlimited operation'.

Mr Krebs noted that the National Bank of Blacksburg suffered $2.4 million loss in a similar attack that was reported in the last month, involving hundreds of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across the U.S. over a period of several months.

The heists that involve hacking the ATMs to quickly have loads of cash are common since long all over the U.S. - be it Gulf Coast or the New England. As per an alert to the banks issued by the U.S. Secret Service in the month of January, it was revealed that the machines that are running on Windows XP are found to be more vulnerable to the attack. The alert issued also encouraged the operators of ATM machines to update their ATMs to Windows 7 in order to save themselves from the attack.

Earlier hackers used to steal online banking credentials and payment card numbers, but with the times - the hackers have learnt the trick to hack the banks networks that provide them access to both electronic payment networks along with ATM machines.

Group IB, cyber security firm of Russia, has reported that cash machines were remotely attacked by the money-hungry hackers in many of the European countries, in 2016. Taiwan and Thailand also reported about similar attacks in the same year. As per KrebsOnSecurity, such kinds of attacks most probably were launched on weekends, normally once the institutions get closed for business. Till now, nothing else has been shared regarding the timeline of when this "cashout" attack may happen.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/21/2018