It been revealed that a particular brand of ATM machines can be
hacked and robbed with ease without even touching or being close to the
device.
The details ain't as simple as it sounds but the ATM
are actually Windows PCs need to be running on XP then it has to be
infected with a trojan virus called Ploutus.
The fraudsters then
have to access the computer (ATM) innards and install their malware and
hook it up to a mobile phone via a USB port and then they have a full
control of the machine
Then all they are now required to do is to
send a message to the planted ATM phone, it then translates the text
into a network packet and sends it to the ATM. Ploutus then transforms
the packets into command-line instructions.
Symantec’s Daniel
Regalado said: “It may seem incredible, but this technique is being used
in a number of places across the world at this time,”
The setup
could last for a very long time if not caught because the phone is
plugged in and is constantly recharging and never runs out of power.
Ploutus
apparently affects only a single brand of ATM, but Symantec has not
released the brand name. It did note that the Trojan, originally written
in Spanish, now has an English-language variant, suggesting that the
criminals behind it might hope to expand their operation.
What is
indisputable is that, as Regalado wrote, “cybercriminals are targeting
ATMs with increasingly sophisticated techniques.” But that would be true
no matter which operating system an ATM runs.
Sources: Yahoo!
