Tech experts have revealed a sneaky technique for getting cash machines to literally spit out cash.
The highly illegal technique involves cloning a chip and pin bank card using special equipment that allows them to authorise payments, the Mirror reports.
The ‘white hat’ (basically good guy hackers) hacking group Rapid7 managed to make an ATM vomit out cash while showing off their technique at a security conference in Las Vegas.
The U.S. have only just adopted chip and pin tech and the demonstration was designed to show some of the security vulnerabilities of the system.
Tod Beardsley, security research manager for Rapid7, said:
In the U.S. we are finally catching up to the rest of the world and using chip and pin. The state of chip and pin security is that it’s a little oversold.
Rapid7 didn’t reveal all the details of their trick but did explain the basics.
Basically, you need to modify a card reader by fitting it with a doohickey called a ‘shimmer’, this then intercepts a card’s details and transfers it to hackers, allowing them to pinch your cash.
The hackers have alerted a number of major ATM makers and banks in the U.S. to the vulnerability in the hopes of stopping any would-be criminals.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.