Memo To Banks: In Case You Missed The First Memo, Change Your ATMs' Default Passwords

Rumors, Conspiracies, etc.

from the double-the-cash-double-the-fun dept

Last month, we wrote about the story making the rounds showing how easily some ATMs could be reprogrammed and set to dispense more money than they should because banks and ATM owners never bothered to change the machines’ default passwords — passwords which were easily found in the ATMs’ manual online. JimH writes in to point out a story from Bristol, England, where people discovered an ATM dispensing double the amount of money they requested (via The Register). Word quickly traveled around, leading to three-hour lines at the machine, while an identical but properly configured ATM beside it sat unused. Local restaurants, bars and liquor stores said they did a roaring trade as people spent their “free” money — but the bank has a record of all the withdrawals and says it will chase down everyone that took advantage of the broken machine. It’s not clear if the ATM in question was one of the same models discussed last month, or indeed just how the machine came to be misconfigured, but this seems like quite an interesting coincidence. In any case, if you run a bank, it might not be a bad idea to check your ATMs and ensure they’re not still using the default password.