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Cyber Risks · Krebs on Security

ATM Thieves Swap Security Camera for Keyboard

Summary: Brazilian authorities arrested a man who allegedly stole more than USD $41,000 from a Bank of Brazil ATM by removing its USB security camera, inserting a USB stick in its place, connecting a folding keyboard, and rebooting the machine to type in the note values he wanted dispensed. Police were alerted by the central bank's security team and caught him mid-withdrawal; authorities believe he was being coached by phone, and a commenter citing a bank insider said the reboot used a Debian Linux image prepared by the bank's own IT maintenance department for emergency recovery. The same article notes crude card skimmers found three times in three months on ATMs at Inova Fairfax and Inova Fair Oaks hospitals, which police said are owned and maintained by banks rather than hospital staff.

What's compelling: The reported entry point was a maintenance tool the bank's own IT department built and an insider leaked, which means the control that failed was trust in internal process, not the ATM's operating system. And the crude skimmers at hospital ATMs pulled in thousands of dollars over several weeks precisely because no bank branch staff were watching those machines.

Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗

Topics
Data Breaches
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