BANGALORE: With 8 April nearing and about 95 percent of ATMs yet to upgrade, it has opened up easy opportunities for hackers to make quick bucks. They seemed to have found a way to crack the XP code to draw money from ATMs with just an SMS or through external keypad attached to the money machine.

“With the looming end-of-life for Windows XP slated for April 8, 2014, the banking industry is facing a serious risk of cyber attacks aimed at their ATM fleet. This risk is not hypothetical — it is already happening. Cybercriminals are targeting ATMs with increasingly sophisticated techniques,” the Symantec report said.

In the latest technique the hackers can get money from the ATM by affecting the machine with a virus called the BackDoor.Ploutus B which allows remote access of money machines by an SMS. “The criminals can remotely control the ATM by using a mobile phone which is connected to the inside of the ATM. There are multiple ways to connect a mobile phone to an ATM. A common method is to use a setup called USB tethering, which is effectively a shared Internet connection between a phone and a computer (or in this case, an ATM),” the report read. 

READ MORE: Beyond Oculus VR, 5 Tech Cos Working On 3D Virtual Reality and How Google Can Plan Your Healthy Meal!