Posted on 06/11/2014 9:49:58 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
TWO 14 YEAR OLD boys 'hacked' into their local bank's cash machine by bothering to read the instructions.
While most hacking attacks seem to involve gangs of shadowy renegades in hidden dens, the teens - Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon from Winnipeg, Canada - realised that, like most electronic devices, there was likely to be a manual for the ATM available online.
The Bank of Montreal ATM in the pair's local grocery store displayed a model number and, after downloading the appropriate manual, they hacked it with a combination of Occam's Razor and staff stupidity.
The machine had not been changed from its default passcode, allowing the boys to follow the instructions to the letter into the supervisor mode.
Having beaten the system, the boys decided not to steal any money, but rather change the welcome message to customers to "Go Away. This machine has been hacked." At this point they went into their local bank branch to report the discovery to rather bemused staff.
Having convinced the bank to follow up on the hack after providing supervisor printout receipts they had obtained, the two realised that they were late back to school after lunch.
Their honesty was rewarded by the bank manager, who wrote a note to their teacher on bank letterhead saying that the two had been "helping BMO with its security".
The story comes less than a year after the death of security expert and hacker Barnaby Jack, who demonstrated his own hacking technique on ATM's in 2010. Despite their vulnerabilities, ATM's are the salvation of diehard Windows XP users who, it seems, can re-enable updates for the operating system by telling their PCs that they are ATMs.
Good post!
“ATM’s are the salvation of diehard Windows XP users who, it seems, can re-enable updates for the operating system by telling their PCs that they are ATMs.”
Interesting.
Yeah, it has nothing to do with the story, but the author tacks it on just to be smart or something.
You can get almost ANY manual online.
My sewing machine doesn't handle large amounts of cash, and no animals were terribly injured during the creation of this post.
/johnny
Doh!
How do I turn my Windoes XP computer into an ATM?
In Obamas america, they would have been promptly arrested and prosecuted to the full extent
You can tell from my swagger and recent lack of dating.
/johnny
That, and point of sale systems/cash registers which have Windows updates until 2016 for XP. It’s sad that it’s just a registry tweak.
/johnny
I LOLed at that and then emailed it to my mom upstairs, she’s going to send me down some pizza and Mountain Dew in a little bit, as soon as I beat this top score.
And today... I spent the entire (long) day with my 3 natural grandchildren and 3 adopted grandchildren. Ages 2-14 inclusive for the total of 6.
That's the real reason. I'm simply exhausted from the running and the cooking and the cleaning.
Mom has been dead for years, or she'd be laughing at me about now.
/johnny
Yeah, I was waiting for that, but No!
Mine died about 2 years ago in in Texas, where I’m not right now, and of course as you know that means probably no basement, and “Mountain Dew” is the state drink of Minnesotans.
Actually that lifestyle I described was what I saw guys living in Minnesota, before computers were common.
those Featherweights are the best
Quite a few people would probably be very interested in knowing that little piece of information.
“That’s amazing! That’s the same password I use for my luggage!”
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