An international group of hackers, possibly linked to international criminal groups, has managed to “lift” more than $1 million from ATMs in the United States using a method called jackpotting. The method forces ATMs to spew out money like slot machines when they hit a jackpot, a U.S. Secret Service official said on Monday.
There have been about 50 successful “jackpotting” attacks in recent days, the official said.
The hacked ATMs, which spew out torrents of cash, have been seen across the United States from the southern part of the country in the New England region to the Northeast, Matthew O’Neill, an agent in the criminal investigation division, told Reuters.
The jackpotting attacks in the United States, according to O’Neill, came in the second year, after attacks in various parts of Europe and Latin America in recent years.
“It was only a matter of time before they hit our country,” O’Neill said.
Diebold Nixdorf Inc. and NCR Corp., two of the world’s largest ATM manufacturers, warned last week that cybercriminals are targeting ATMs with specific tools needed to perform jackpotting.
Diebold Nixdorf’s warning detailed the steps criminals take. These include gaining physical access, replacing the hard drive and using an industrial borescope to press an internal button that can reset the device.
Machines running Windows XP are most vulnerable, while ATMs running Windows 7 are better protected from attacks.
“There is no magic bullet to solve the problem.”
Jackpotting has been on the rise worldwide in recent years, although it is unclear how much money has been stolen because victims and police often do not disclose all the details.
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