Hackers Target ATMs in US

JPMorgan Chase ATMs stand near a door as customers walk past a Duane Reade store in New York. Photo: Reuters
JPMorgan Chase ATMs stand near a door as customers walk past a Duane Reade store in New York. Photo: Reuters
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Hackers Target ATMs in US

JPMorgan Chase ATMs stand near a door as customers walk past a Duane Reade store in New York. Photo: Reuters
JPMorgan Chase ATMs stand near a door as customers walk past a Duane Reade store in New York. Photo: Reuters

Cyber criminals targeted US cash machines with tools that force them to spit out cash in hacking schemes known as “jackpotting.”

The two ATM makers Diebold Nixdorf Inc. and NCR Corp. did not identify any victims or say how much money had been lost.

Jackpotting has been rising worldwide in recent years, though it is unclear how much cash has been stolen because victims and police often do not disclose details.

Hackers who use this method drag the ATM to a trap in order to steal the money it stocks.

The attacks were reported earlier on Saturday by the security news website Krebs on Security, which said they had begun last year in Mexico. The companies confirmed to Reuters on Saturday they had sent out the alerts to clients.

NCR said in a Friday alert that the cases were the first confirmed “jackpotting” losses in the United States.

It said its equipment had not been targeted in the recent attacks, but that it was still a concern for the entire ATM industry.

The alert said: “This should be treated by all ATM deployers as a call to action to take appropriate steps to protect their ATMs against these forms of attack,”

Diebold Nixdorf said in a separate Friday alert that US authorities had warned the company that hackers were targeting one of its ATM models, known as Opteva, which went out of production several years ago.

Krebs on Security reported that a confidential US Secret Service alert sent to banks said the hackers targeted stand-alone ATMs typically located in pharmacies, big box retailers and drive-thru ATMs.

Reuters was unable to obtain a copy of the Secret Service report and an agency representative declined comment. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Investigation could not immediately be reached.

Russian cyber security firm Group IB has reported that cyber criminals remotely attacked cash machines in more than a dozen countries across Europe in 2016. Similar attacks were also reported that year in Thailand and Taiwan.



Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
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Greece to Build Escape Port on Santorini as Quakes Continue

FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People board a ferry to Piraeus, during an increased seismic activity on the island of Santorini, Greece, February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis/File Photo

Greece will soon set up an evacuation port on the island of Santorini to facilitate the safe escape of people in case a bigger quake hits the popular tourist destination, a Greek minister said on Monday.
Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, has been shaken by tens of thousands of mild quakes since late January, forcing thousands of people to flee, and authorities to ban construction activity, and shut schools and nearby islands.
No major damage has been reported but scientists have said the seismic activity was unprecedented even in a quake-prone country like Greece and have not ruled out bigger tremors.
They have identified the main ferry port at the foot of a precipitous slope and other sites across Santorini as weak links, although they have not said they cannot be used in an emergency situation, Reuters reported.
Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece will build an evacuation port for the safe docking of passenger ferries until a new port infrastructure is in place.
"Along with the new port in Santorini which is being prepared, there was a decision for setting up an escape port on the part of the island where passenger ferries would be able to dock in an emergency," he said in an interview with Greek ANT1 television.
Although the tremors lessened over the weekend, local authorities extended emergency measures for a third week on Sunday and reiterated calls for people to stay away from coastal areas and steep hillsides prone to landslides.
"This story is not over," Costas Papazachos, a seismology professor, and a spokesperson for the Santorini quakes told public broadcaster ERT.
"Both authorities and habitants should get used to a rather unpleasant situation for some time, it could be another two, three months."
Santorini took its current shape following one of the largest volcanic eruptions in history, around 1600 BC.
Seismologists have said the latest seismic activity, the result of moving tectonic plates and magma, has pushed subsurface layers of the island upwards.