ATMs new ‘sweet spot’ for cyber criminals, says report

“We have seen a big focus on ATM attacks in the APAC region, including in India. ATMs in underdeveloped countries are particularly vulnerable as those countries still have old ATM software and are running Windows XP. This makes them the perfect target for an easier score,” US-based cyber security company FireEye claimed in its “2017 Security Landscape-Asia Pacific Edition” report. 

Recently, some premier Indian banks blocked debit cards that were compromised (the numbers ran into millions) in one of the financial sector’s biggest data breaches. SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and YES Bank were among banks which reported several of their customers’ debit cards being compromised following a malware-related security breach in an ATM network. The SBI blocked  nearly 600,000 debit cards. 

This came on the heels of malware attacks and cyber threats that affected countries like Japan and Bangladesh this year. “With the rise in ransomware activities, religious groups may unexpectedly become a target of cyber criminals in 2017, adding much of the threat activity in the Asia-Pacific region is from China,” FireEye continued. While talking about investments in security that organisations will make in 2017, FireEye predicts organisations making significant investments in the form of orchestration and automation in 2017. 

“Firms seeking to simplify everything in 2017 will set their sights on integration. 

A single pane of glass for all security needs will improve the organisation’s security posture and show companies the true value of all the products they have acquired,” the report noted. 

The proliferation of cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) would present new opportunities for adversaries to abuse their connectivity and cause disruption at scale for a bigger payoff. 

Recently, a hacker group called Cobalt targeted ATMs across Europe and remotely attacked the machines using malicious software that manipulated the systems which led the machines to automatically dispense huge amount of cash.