Using Google to Take Over ATMs Is Easier Than It Sounds

We’d never advocate going out and stealing money from ATMs (edit: But I don’t have a problem with it. – Blake), but we would warn ATM manufacturers that, armed with Google and a little patience and ingenuity, it’s fairly easy to do, especially if the machine is the fairly common Tanax Mini-Bank 1500.

You might recall the story of the man last week in Virginia Beach, VA who managed to reprogram a local gas station’s ATM to dispense $20 bills instead of $5, making off with a small fortune until other customers noticed. You might think of this man as a l337 HaXX0r, but you’d be wrong.

As it turns out, it’s not terribly difficult to locate a manual for several types of ATMs, including the one at the gas station. The manuals often contain the master password, with which you can more or less make the machine work as you’d like.

Now before you fire up your Google, note that it’s a gross felony to tamper with ATMs, and jail time isn’t pleasant (edit: Matt would know). Keep that in mind, and keep your searches based around the words “kristanna” and “loken”, and we should all be fine.


Googling for ATM master passwords
[eWeek]