The Taiwan authorities are trying to understand how some hackers have managed to trick a bank ATM network by removing over two million dollars in a few hours.
Η police suspects two Russian nationals who were wearing masks. Suspects managed to visit dozens of ATMs of Taiwan's First Bank on Sunday as the country was hit by a typhoon. Scammers stole an estimated $2,2 million just hours after the typhoon hit Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.
Οι δύο (ή ίσως και τρεις) απατεώνες που πραγματοποίησαν τις κλοπές δεν χρησιμοποίησαν τραπεζικές κάρτες, όπως δείχνουν οι κάμερες ασφαλείας. Οι hackers φαίνεται ότι απέκτησαν τον έλεγχο των ΑTM, με μια “συνδεδεμένη device,” possibly with a smartphone, according to police.
The violated ATMs were manufactured by German company Wincor Nixdorf, which admits that some of Taiwan's machines have been hacked. Three different kinds of malware were found on the machines.
First Bank and other Taiwan banks stopped withdrawals from their ATMs as a precautionary measure after the attack, and are awaiting the controls that will try to determine how the attack was done.
However, security experts have already come up with some theories trying to explain hack.
Craig Young, a security researcher of the Vulnerability and Exposures Research team at Tripwire, said:
"Attackers may have found another mass ATM breach technique like the technique presented by Barnaby Jack at Black Hat USA 2010. These attacks use malware that reprograms the machine. Έτσι βγαίνουν τα cash.
“Some ATMs have network management systems with known default codes accesss, and in many cases, thieves can and do have access to USB ports to load malware from a flash drive. From the description, it sounds like the thieves may have installed malware enabling wireless connection to the ATMs. It is also very possible that a vulnerable wireless service could allow unauthorized access to hackers.”
