INDUSTRYNEWS
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DRAMATIC FALL IN NUMBER OF
‘TRADITIONAL’ BANK ROBBERIES
The number of robberies on British
bank branches has dropped by 90% in
the past decade, figures from the British
Bankers Association suggest.
The BBA said there were 66 robberies in
2011, compared to 847 in 1992.
The drop has been attributed to a
raft of innovative technologies making
it extremely difficult for “traditional”
robbery tactics to work.
“Banks are working hard to confine
armed robberies to the world of TV
dramas,” BBA chief Anthony Browne
said.
A similar trend has been noted in the US,
where FBI figures for 2012 put the number
of bank robberies nationwide at 3,870 the lowest in decades.
Banks have made significant investments
in security technology ranging from
simple barriers - which drop down when
a panic button is pressed - to special “fog”
that disorientates criminals. ‘DNA’ spray is
another common deterrent - robbers are
coated with a unique, traceable material
that is extremely difficult to wash off skin
and can prove that a suspect was at the
premises of a robbery.
Combined, the measures mean the risks
outweigh any potential gains - particularly
as bank branches typically store less cash
on the premises than in previous years.
But while brute-force bank robberies are
dropping, banks - and their customers are still under threat from crime.
Official statistics from the Met Police
confirm that business robberies were
down 31% in London over the past decade
but some thieves have switched their
focus to the vehicles that transport money
between banks.
More significant is the growing rate of
cyber-crime relating to banks and other
financial transactions.
Recently, 40 million credit card details
held by major US retail chain Target were
compromised and are now being sold
online. The attack allegedly originated in
Ukraine.
Hackers - the new generation of robbers
- are also scooping up personal details
and packaging them up to be sold on with full dossiers of information about
an individual, including bank details,
routinely sold on the online black market
for around $30, a recent study suggested.
Cash machines robbed
with infected USB sticks
Researchers have revealed how cyber-thieves sliced into cash
machines in order to infect them with malware in 2013.
The criminals cut the holes in
order to plug in USB drives
that installed their code onto
the ATMs.
Details of the attacks on
an unnamed European
bank’s cash dispensers were
presented at the hackerthemed Chaos Computing
Congress in Hamburg,
Germany. The crimes also
appear to indicate the thieves
mistrusted each other. The two
researchers who detailed the
attacks have asked for their
names not to be published.
6
The thefts came to light after
the lender involved noticed
several its ATMs were being
emptied despite their use
of safes to protect the cash
inside.
After surveillance was
increased, the bank discovered
the criminals were vandalising
the machines to use the
infected USB sticks. The
malware was installed onto the
ATMs via USB sticks. Once the
malware had been transferred
they patched the holes up. This
allowed the same machines
to be targeted several times
without the hack being
discovered.
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To activate the code at the
time of their choosing, the
thieves typed in a 12-digit
code that launched a special
interface.
Analysis of software installed
onto four of the affected
machines demonstrated that it
displayed the amount of money
available in each denomination
of note and presented a series
of menu options on the ATM’s
screen to release each kind.
The researchers said this
allowed the attackers to focus
on the highest value banknotes
in order to minimise the
amount of time they were
exposed.
But the crimes’ masterminds
appeared to be concerned
that some of their gang might
take the drives and go solo. To
counter this risk the software
required the thief to enter a
second code in response to
numbers shown on the ATM’s
screen before they could
release the money.
The correct response varied
each time and the thief could
only obtain the right code
by phoning another gang
member and telling them the
numbers displayed. If they did
nothing the machine would
return to its normal state after
three minutes.
To read more, visit www.locksmithjournal.co.uk