Over the weekend, there were multiple reports of a rogue ATM machine at the Defcon conference in Las Vegas. The story is that there was some kind of fake ATM machine that was allegedly skimming users info.
Defcon attendees spotted the rogue and it got removed.
Goes to show that you shouldn’t try and hack a hacker right? The irony of the situation is that there was supposed to be a presentation at Defcon on how to ‘hack’ (or jackpot) legitimate ATM machines – a talk that got pulled by the vendor.
The larger question in my mind though is – Would I (or would you) be able to spot a fake ATM?
It’s not usually an easy task. In the Defcon case, the reports note that there was something suspicious about the ATM unit itself. That’s usually the first clue. If the cash machine doesn’t look ‘right’ it probably isn’t.