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BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

securityweek.com

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Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#11

Post by encoderer »

On a related note: The Bank Of America ATMs are really, really great. Their ATMs and their online bill pay service are some great banking tech. They're the only reason I'm a BoA customer for my checking and cashflow accounts.

With their BillPay service, I can have BoA download e-bills from, say, credit card companies or utilities, and pay the amount of the bill on its due date. I never have to worry about it. I can set rules like "Pay my electric bill its full amount on its due date unless it's over $200" so I'm protected from crazy billing errors draining my account.

This guy was just a dumbass.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#12

Post by bdunbar »

bhavin wrote: post #7

One would wonder if there were any code reviews in place or not? Any code that has monetary effects has to go through a series of code reviews (saying from my experience working with a client in banking industry) and tests. I would be curious as to how the 'bug' went undetected until deployment!

Any code that has monetary effects has to go through a series of code reviews

The article reported that he installed malware on select ATMs.

I acknowledge that this leaves a great deal to the imagination, but one suspects a code review would not catch the problem. The code was clean, the implementation on certain machines went awry.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#13

Post by zach »

encoderer wrote: post #11

On a related note: The Bank Of America ATMs are really, really great. Their ATMs and their online bill pay service are some great banking tech. They're the only reason I'm a BoA customer for my checking and cashflow accounts. With their BillPay service, I can have BoA download e-bills from, say, credit card companies or utilities, and pay the amount of the bill on its due date. I never have to worry about it. I can s…

And yet they still use the Windows "ding" for everything, because of course there's no budget for sound design in an ATM project.

I hear those weirdly-out-of-place Windows sounds everywhere. It grates on me the same way Comic Sans grates on those who appreciate type.

Someone who does sound design could pick up this banner and impress everyone with set of free UI sounds that are classic and usable.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#14

Post by delinka »

delinka wrote: post #10

I wonder how they'd have felt about it making phantom lines of credit instead. (Of course, with interest.) "Oh, it's Programmer D! How's it goin', D? You want $1,000? OK! And since you don't have enough money just now, I'll just jot this down for you to pay back later." And magically, when I deposit $5,000, it pays back a few hundred on my, er, his loan. :-)

Fine, more apropos- yeah, the guy was an idiot. I was going to pontificate on how one might actually pull this off, but there's always a problem: you're gonna make mistakes and eventually get caught.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#15

Post by yid »

encoderer wrote: post #11

On a related note: The Bank Of America ATMs are really, really great. Their ATMs and their online bill pay service are some great banking tech. They're the only reason I'm a BoA customer for my checking and cashflow accounts. With their BillPay service, I can have BoA download e-bills from, say, credit card companies or utilities, and pay the amount of the bill on its due date. I never have to worry about it. I can s…

Wow that is really some amateurish shilling. Almost all the major banks (e.g., Chase) offer the same bill paying functionality.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#16

Post by encoderer »

yid wrote: post #15
encoderer wrote: post #11

On a related note: The Bank Of America ATMs are really, really great. Their ATMs and their online bill pay service are some great banking tech. They're the only reason I'm a BoA customer for my checking and cashflow accounts. With their BillPay service, I can have BoA download e-bills from, say, credit card companies or utilities, and pay the amount of the bill on its due date. I never have to worry about it. I can s…

Wow that is really some amateurish shilling. Almost all the major banks (e.g., Chase) offer the same bill paying functionality.

Says the guy who created an account 40 days ago?

I've got bank accounts a 4 other institutions: 2 credit unions (USAA and Alliant), and 2 regional banks (SunTrust and PNC).

None of them offer e-bill initiated payments.

I modded you down simply because I don't understand your tone.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#17

Post by ohyes »

ck2 wrote: post #8

People in charge of the BofA mortgage signature fraud should go to prison too. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20049744-10391709.htm... But I guess it's a lot easier to prosecute people who can't afford expensive lawyers.

Also its more difficult to defraud people (or you know, legal entities with all of the same rights as people) who can afford expensive lawyers.

Re: BofA Programmer Heads to Prison After Coding ATMs to Spit Out Free Cash

#18

Post by calloc »

zach wrote: post #13
encoderer wrote: post #11

On a related note: The Bank Of America ATMs are really, really great. Their ATMs and their online bill pay service are some great banking tech. They're the only reason I'm a BoA customer for my checking and cashflow accounts. With their BillPay service, I can have BoA download e-bills from, say, credit card companies or utilities, and pay the amount of the bill on its due date. I never have to worry about it. I can s…

And yet they still use the Windows "ding" for everything, because of course there's no budget for sound design in an ATM project. I hear those weirdly-out-of-place Windows sounds everywhere. It grates on me the same way Comic Sans grates on those who appreciate type. Someone who does sound design could pick up this banner and impress everyone with set of free UI sounds that are classic and usable.

That is because those ATM's are running on top of embedded Windows. Mostly Embedded Windows XP.
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