Via Reuters –

Cyber criminals have remotely attacked cash machines in more than a dozen countries across Europe this year, using malicious software that forces machines to spit out cash.

The recent heists in Europe and Asia were run from central, remote command centers, enabling criminals to target large numbers of machines in “smash and grab” operations that seek to drain large amounts of cash before banks uncover the hacks.

“They are taking this to the next level in being able to attack a large number of machines at once,” said Nicholas Billett, Diebold Nixdorf’s senior director of core software and ATM Security. “They know they will be caught fairly quickly, so they stage it in such a way that they can get cash from as many ATMs as they can before they get shut down.”

Gone are the days when mugging at knife point was the best way to steal your money. Now it seems criminals can work remotely from the comfort of their living room. Cyber attacks are getting so common now that I think Banks need to re-think their security setups.

More at Reuters.