French researchers claim fraudsters stole $680,000 via MitM attack on EMV cards
A French researcher has cracked a four-year-old case in which fraudsters stole approximately $680,000 through a man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack. The attack was designed to prevent the PIN verification message during the second phase of the transaction for Europay Master Visa Cards (EMV), which are known as chip-and-PIN cards and are considered more secure than those with magnetic stripe technology used by national banks.
However, the researchers said that these attacks are no longer likely to occur because a new authentication method has been devised, called “Combined Data Authentication” or CDA, as well as a series of network-level protections.
According to a blog post published on October 20, researchers at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom discovered a flaw that allowed criminals to use stolen chip-and-PIN cards without knowing their PIN.
During this period, researchers noticed that it would not be difficult for criminals to build a miniature of the MitM device needed to connect to the card.
However, the following year, a French banking group learned that many EMV cards stolen in France had been used in Belgium. Immediately after illegal transactions using EMV cards (which seemed impossible), an investigation was launched.
It is said that around €600,000 ($680,000) has been stolen by conducting 7,000 transactions using 40 modified cards.
In a research paper published by French researchers, it is considered the most sophisticated and clever card fraud.
