The first known ATM virus discovered!
Russia’s Dr. Web IT Company has warned of a new ATM virus where hackers could use it to steal money from ATM. Russia’s “Doctor Web” and the Kaspersky Lab” have discovered this virus. The malware is called Troj/Skimer-A designed to capture vital card details. The main executable was identified as a dropper and the drop object was found to be stored in one of the PE resources. This virus collects information about PIN and other vital credit card details and then releases them to a fraud on demand. The fraud gets an offing to approach the ATM and collects the vital data about the cards. Skinner virus collects credit card data including the vital PIN codes. It is able to infect and survive in the ATM. It will appear, aimed at illegitimately using banking information and siphoning off funds of the clients. It is capable of infecting the popular American Diebold brand of ATM used in Russia and Ukraine.
Clearly the person that programmed this malware knows a lot about the internals of Diebold ATMs, and so this is most likely an insider’s job. The possibility of one of the programmers hailing from the former Soviet Republic is very much in the news.
Though its impact so far has been minimal, the bank clients are unable to distinguish between an infected and a non-infected ATM. Susceptible banks can well run a security software to assess the risk of their ATMs being infected by this new virus.
Russia’s Dr. Web IT Company has warned of a new ATM virus where hackers could use it to steal money from ATM. Russia’s “Doctor Web” and the Kaspersky Lab” have discovered this virus. The malware is called Troj/Skimer-A designed to capture vital card details. The main executable was identified as a dropper and the drop object was found to be stored in one of the PE resources. This virus collects information about PIN and other vital credit card details and then releases them to a fraud on demand. The fraud gets an offing to approach the ATM and collects the vital data about the cards. Skinner virus collects credit card data including the vital PIN codes. It is able to infect and survive in the ATM. It will appear, aimed at illegitimately using banking information and siphoning off funds of the clients. It is capable of infecting the popular American Diebold brand of ATM used in Russia and Ukraine.
Clearly the person that programmed this malware knows a lot about the internals of Diebold ATMs, and so this is most likely an insider’s job. The possibility of one of the programmers hailing from the former Soviet Republic is very much in the news.
Though its impact so far has been minimal, the bank clients are unable to distinguish between an infected and a non-infected ATM. Susceptible banks can well run a security software to assess the risk of their ATMs being infected by this new virus.
It is still not known how the criminals managed to gain physical access to the cash machines without being noticed but according to Diebold the criminals have already been apprehended. So is this the dawn of a new credit card data-stealing technique? It is possible, but looking at the pros and cons it is much more convenient to steal such data via the web than to physically break into machines, so lets hold that thought for now.
Source: Times of India, March 27, 2009
Image: Google
6 comments on "The first known ATM virus"
Hackers are going crazy:)
http://technobuz.com
thanks for visiting my blog post and offering your comments. My url is http://ofcourseeys.blogspot.com. Adding your link.
This is how the game between thieves and police evolves. They are there to devise new ways when protection has to catch up...
Very good site and must read...
wow.. thats scary...
Thanks for the comments.
T he more innovative we are so are the thieves . They seem to vie with us.
Post a Comment