A group of hackers known as Cobalt is believed to be behind a series of attacks targeting ATMs in Europe with malware that forces the machines to eject cash.
Russian security firm Group IB explains that the attacks were carried out remotely and affected withdrawal machines in countries such as Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Malaysia.
ATM manufacturers NCR and Diebold Nixdorf have already confirmed the attacks, but declined to reveal the names of the banks affected.
According to a Reuters, the attacks on European and Asian ATMs were launched from a single remote command center, the aim of which is to trick ATMs into stealing money from unsuspecting victims before banks can notice the attacks and block them. All attacks are carried out simultaneously on several targets.
"They've taken ATM hacking to the next level by being able to attack a large number of machines at once. They know they'll be caught pretty quickly, so they've set it up in such a way that they can get cash from as many ATMs as possible," said Nicholas Billett, a security executive.
The Cobalt group is believed to be part of a larger organization known as Buhtrap which is responsible for attacks against Russian banks that took place from August 2015 to January 2016. Group IB also says that these attacks allowed the hackers to steal $28 million.
NCR and Diebold Nixdorf claim that a new series of attacks are likely to be carried out in the coming weeks and months by Cobalt, so the two companies are preparing to block them.
Neither Europol, which investigates cybercrime in Europe, nor the ATM Security Agency have made any statement regarding these attacks, but investigations are most likely ongoing now and behind closed doors.
