A recent FBI report warns banks of an ATM exploit that could occur "in the coming days."
The FBI is warning banks
that a large cyberattack is coming, and criminals are expected to
exploit a vulnerability in ATMs to steal millions or billions of dollars
over the next few days. According to the FBI, this attack is expected
to be global in scale and could target any of a number of different
banks.
“The FBI has obtained unspecified reporting
indicating cyber criminals are planning to conduct a global Automated
Teller Machine (ATM) cash-out scheme in the coming days,” reads the FBI
alert.
The FBI first became aware of this
possible attack when hackers started using it to target small banks
around the world. The hackers uploaded malware to bank systems that
allowed them to edit customer accounts at will, giving them the ability
to withdraw effectively unlimited money from ATMs.
Since
then, the FBI has issued a warning to multiple banks around the
country, although the agency never notified the public directly. The
security blog Krebs on Security recently published the text of the warning publicly.
"Historic
compromises have included small-to-medium size financial institutions,
likely due to less robust implementation of cyber security controls,
budgets, or third-party vendor vulnerabilities,” said the FBI alert.
“The FBI expects the ubiquity of this activity to continue or possibly
increase in the near future."
The FBI warning
also comes with several tips for banks to prevent them from being
targeted, including limiting the number of administrative accounts,
monitoring network traffic for vulnerable applications or encrypted
traffic, and only allowing trusted applications to be installed on their
networks.
Source: Krebs on Security
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