US-based news resource Kerbs which mainly reports about cybercrime and computer security has issued a latest alert which says that all ATMs operating in the United States are vulnerable to Jackpotting cyber attacks.
The said variant of cyber attacks was mostly seen in Europe and Asia until last year. But now, is said to have targeted Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) operating in Mexico and is found slowly creeping into the American Territory.
Jackpotting is nothing but a kind of activity driven by hackers which makes ATMs operating in the United States spit cash like winning slot machines.
Security analysts from Kerbs on Security feel that the Jackpotting will give a tough challenge to American Financial firms in coming years and might become a menace to banks operating ATMs in developing districts of United States.
An alert has been specifically issued to Nixdorf and NCR Corp, which are supposed to be the world’s largest ATM makers. And the two financial firms have already sent out alerts to their clients and have deployed related staff to take appropriate steps to protect their ATM assets from Jackpotting attacks.
So far, over 21 cases of hackers’ cyber attacking ATMs located in Pharmacies, large retailers, and driver through ATMs have been identified by Kerbs in 2018. And in all these cases cybercriminals were found gaining physical access, replacing the hard drives, and using an industrial endoscope to press in an internal switch which initiates a reset of the entire device.
Recently, an article in Forbes was published in this issue which says that a cybercriminal gang stole USD $13 million from Japanese ATMs in just 3 hours time. And have also targeted bank ATMs in Taiwan, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Srilanka, and some parts of Africa.
A reliable source from BBC said that Taiwan has acted swiftly on this issuing by imposing a ban on more than 1000 ATMs.
Kerbs report says that the crime now has slowly crept into western nations in the past one year and will soon target ATMs located in the United States. So, the Brian Kerbs led news reporting organization is asking the financial institutions of America to pull up their socks before it’s too late.
