INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
New research from Positive Technologies has revealed that ATM machines are vulnerable to a number of basic attack techniques that could
allow hackers to steal thousands in cash.The company's researchers studied over two dozen different models of ATMs and discovered that
almost all of them are vulnerable to network or local access attacks that would allow hackers to obtain money from them illegally.Positive
20 could be forced to exit kiosk mode via USB or PS/2 and 24 had no data encryption in place on their hard drives.Protection for showDespite
the large amount of funds held by ATMs, the researchers found that the protections used by the machines to prevent theft and tampering were
basically for show and anyone motivated to do so could gain access to a machine in under an hour.Positive Technologies offered further
details on the findings of its study, saying:"More often than not, security mechanisms are a mere nuisance for attackers: our testers found
ways to bypass protection in almost every case
Since banks tend to use the same configuration on large numbers of ATMs, a successful attack on a single ATM can be easily replicated at
greater scale."The report recommends that banks improve the physical security of the machines themselves by limiting access to their inputs
This could prevent many of the techniques used in the study from being carried out by real world hackers.Via The Register
