Hasta La Gadget!

ATM skimmers lift credit and debit card information by attaching to the card slot on the machine, although such modifications have typically been spotted quickly due to their bulky and obvious nature. Over the years, skimmers have become increasingly hard to detect, resulting in mass fraud until the banks fix the affected ATM. The latest generation of ATM skimmers are said to be so thin that they can be inserted directly into a card slot without arousing suspicion.

Recent reports from the European ATM Security Team detail a new skimming device that can be inserted directly into an ATM card reader thanks to its svelte frame. Just like other skimmers, it lifts information from the magnetic strip on the back of a credit or debit card and stores it for later retrieval. Bulky ATM skimmers can be easily avoided, but a device that fits directly into the card reader could be difficult to detect.

Still, such devices need the most crucial piece of information: your PIN. The only way to lift that is by using a secondary device, typically either an overlay on top of the keypad on an ATM or a hidden camera. Cameras may be a little tricky to spot, but any modifications to the keypad should be easier to detect. As always, if something doesn’t seem right about an ATM you’re trying to use, call the bank and try to find another machine.

[via Krebs on Security]

Latest ATM skimmers get thinner is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Yesterday Yahoo! suffered a major security breach as it saw over 400,000 passwords leak out. The group responsible for the hack claimed it was to expose the shoddy security methods employed by the company, and wasn’t intended as a malicious attack. It looks like Yahoo! wasn’t the only victim, as several other companies have had their databases exposed and pasted onto the internet due to similar security lapses.

ZDNet reports that Phandroid suffered from a hack on its Android Forums, which exposed usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords. Its not known how many users have been affected by the hack, although the forum has over a million registered users. The administrators of the site say the exploit has been found and fixed, with the hack most likely an attempt to harvest email addresses.

Last night, Billabong and NVIDIA also suffered from hacks. Around 35,000 plaintext passwords are said to have been extracted from Billabong’s database, but only 1,435 were located in a CodePaste.net post. Like the Yahoo! hack, it looks like the hackers took advantage of a MySQL injection exploit to get at the data.

NVIDIA also shut down its Developer Zone last night after in response to a hacking attack on the website. In a statement, NVIDIA says that it shut down the site “in response to attacks on the site by unauthorized third parties who may have gained access to hashed passwords.” There’s no word on how many passwords were taken as a result of the hack, but unlike Billabong, all of the passwords are hashed.

[via The Next Web]

Billabong, NVIDIA, and Android Forums all affected by hacks is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.