Slashdot Mirror
Vacationing Security Researcher Exposes Austrian ATM Skimmer (carbonblack.com)
While vacationing with his family in Vienna, Ben Tedesco (from security company Carbon Black) discovered an ATM skimmer "in the wild", perfectly crafted to look like the original card reader. New submitter rmurph04 shares Ben's story: I went to grab some cash from an ATM. Being security paranoid, I repeated my typical habit of checking the card reader with my hand as I have hundreds of times. Today's the day when my security awareness paid off!
Ben's blog post includes a video demonstrating the ATM skimmer, as well as close-ups showing the device had its own control board, strip reader, and even its own battery.
Ben's blog post includes a video demonstrating the ATM skimmer, as well as close-ups showing the device had its own control board, strip reader, and even its own battery.
Note that his ATM has a grey ridge just above the screen, almost blocking to buttons at the top of the screen, while the ATM left from his does not have this extra ridge. This part should contain the camera to record the password number, needed to use the card (in Europe).
Therein lies the problem. Here in Europe (and practically all of the rest of the world) we have switched to CHIP and PIN which allegedly makes skimming much more difficult. Unfortunately, this technology appears to be too complex for Americans to understand so we all have to have mag stripes on our cards as well just in case we ever go there. I never go to the USA, so the mag stripes on my cards are entirely useless other than for skimmers.
Does anyone know of any UK banks which offer a "I am never going to go to North America so please send me a card with a blank mag stripe" service or even a "I sometimes go to North America so please send me two cards, one with mag and one without" service?
So instead of phoning the police, he destroys possible evidence, such as fingerprints. Bravo.
"Blatant" is rather an overstatement. Nobody is going to be alarmed by minor cosmetic changes such as the 1/8" gap between the blue sticker and the keyboard being eliminated. Do you think people go around with a precise image of these machines in their head?