And for you, Mr./Ms. Lurkina.n.Learnin: Windows XP registry hack keeps security updates rolling for the dead operating system
Haven't tried this yet ... its late, maybe tomorrow ...
PS: Love your page quote - just ignore mine ... ;-)
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.
“You can get almost ANY manual online.”
I believe you. Most of the old cameras I owned are are available for download, including laptops I still own for the past 10 years. Incredible
See post #21.
Yes, but how do I get it to dispense ca$h? ;)
“The machine had not been changed from its default passcode “
I started in IT in 1995 (my first pc was 33mhz with 8 meg of ram, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that i’m so old).
anyhow, pc’s where so strange to most of the user base (users, we called them), they were afraid of them.
we would set up default passwords as “password”. six months later when you came by , their password was still “password”.
The most amazing thing on this story is that the bank didn’t arrest the kids for their good deed....
So other than being marked ‘late for school’, the boys were never directly punished for hacking that ATM in the first place. One would think a few months in juvie jail might benefit their lack of maturity. They have the brains to succeed, though, so long as they don’t wind up in a gang.
Haven't tried this yet ... its late, maybe tomorrow ...
PS: Love your page quote - just ignore mine ... ;-)
Any theories why I can’t get pcworld pages to load in Chrome?
I can’t find an extension or setting that is blocking it, but my firefox loads it.
Never mind, when I stop all of them, it loads, now I just have to work through Adblock Plus, Disconnect, HTTPS Everywhere, Window Name Eraser, and Quick Javascript Switcher, to find the problem.
I can’t find just a ‘single’ issue with the extensions, but opening it in an incognito window works.
Sounds like a late night, self-help infomercial.
There’s a registry entry that once changed re-enables the updates by telling the update service it’s an eligible device running XP Embedded.
I can’t vouch for the safety of it.
How do I turn my Windoes XP computer into an ATM?
Silly frog - just answer one of those “Make Money FAST!!!!” spams.
Beats me. I don’t do windoze. I’m a linux kind of guy.
You can tell from my swagger and recent lack of dating.
BSD is the ONE, TRUE code! /fanatic
(1) They did not take any money from it (even though it seems likely that in supervisor mode they could have told it to dump out all the cash).
(2) They immediately informed the bank they had a security issue, allowing the bank to fix the issue before some criminal DID make the ATM dump its cash into his hands.
(3) Penalizing good deeds creates an environment where people stop doing good deeds.
Thanks for posting that very helpful information.
Hire the kids part time to test your systems!
GI, GO = CI, CO
They are now on the radar screen, and will be suspects in anything remotely resembling their hack.
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