The FBI is now warning that hackers have the ability to program ATMs to spew cash, confirming this has already happened in Taiwan and Thailand in recent months.
In a bulletin, the FBI said it is “monitoring emerging reports indicating that well-resources and organized malicious cyber actors have intentions to target the U.S. financial sector.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, Russian gang members used software called Buhtrap to program ATMs to empty their cash at a predetermined time, then stood in front of them and collected millions, the FBI bulletin said. In addition to the incidents in Taiwan and Thailand in July and August, investigators now believe First Commercial London’s network was breached May 31 in a similar fashion as a practice run for the larger scale attacks.
The FBI reported hackers used “phishing” emails to break into the Taiwan and Thailand banks. The emails were designed to look like messages from ATM vendors or other banks, The Wall Street Journal reported.
These attacks are a new tactic of hackers, who previously hacked into individual consumer accounts to steal money or used fraudulent cards at ATM machines.
Taipei police reported in July the attacks had caused more than $300 million in losses, according to the WSJ. The Russian group responsible for the attacks also stole more than $25 million from Russian banks prior to the larger scale attacks in other countries.
The computer code for the attacks was released recently by a member of Buhtrap and is now being used by others. In addition, another group called Cobalt has begun to carry out attacks on banks in Europe and Asia as well, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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