How Cyber Sleuths Cracked an ATM Shimmer Gang
Summary: Starting in 2015, police worldwide found ATMs fitted with chip-card 'shimmers' that drew a few milliamps of power from the inserted card to record transaction data in encrypted form, and for years authorities could not decrypt the seized devices. After an identical shimmer surfaced in New York City in 2017, MasterCard's UK forensics lab cracked the encryption using known card-activity windows from CCTV footage, revealing a reused stolen Austrian bank card number that let investigators track the gang's ATM compromises globally.
Key Takeaway: The same stolen Austrian account number traversed the card networks every time the gang hit a new ATM, turning one cracked device into a global alert system - and the OCCRP estimates the Romanian 'Riviera Maya Gang' behind it stole more than $1.2 billion from tourists' accounts.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
- Related
- TSMC employee data breach linked to cloud provider Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026Data Breach at La Poste Subsidiary Maileva Affects 22 Million People in France Cyber Risks · Nov 15, 2026City of Osaka warns of data breach impacting 1 million as Japan reels from dozens of cyber incidents Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026