ATM Malware Spreading, Causing Security Issues

A new report says cash machines around the world are infected with malware that could harvest someone’s card details for use in fraud – and that situation could soon get a lot worse.

In an article on the ComputerWorld website, Jeremy Kirk says the report by Trustwave’s SpiderLabs research group made the discovery earlier this year when it found an ATM malware sample from a financial institution in Eastern Europe.

“It’s the first time we have come across malware of this type,” Andrew Henwood, vice president of SpiderLabs’s Europe, Middle East and Africa operation, told Kirk. “We were surprised at the level of sophistication. It does make us generally pretty nervous.”

The malware works by recording the magnetic stripe information on the back of a card as well as the PIN (personal identification number). That data can be printed out on the ATM’s receipt roll when a special master card is inserted into the ATM that launches a user interface. It can also be recorded on the magnetic stripe of that master control card.

To install the malware, a person would need access to the inside of the ATM or a port in which software could be uploaded. That means insiders could be involved, or cybercriminals have picked a lock on an ATM in order to install the software, Henwood told Kirk.

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