Live data from Hacker News

Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

arstechnica.com

41–50 of 53 posts

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#41
post #23

It's a nice idea (inserting the card widthways), but it's completely over-engineered. It's never going to be used as a retro-fit - it looks too much like a skimmer. In fact, if they became commonplace, it would make fitting skimmers that look like this device so much easier than trying to hide a skimmer in a discrete housing. Instead, allowing the card to be inserted widthways, and pulling it into the ATM as normal,…

it would be easy to make it look like it is part of the machine....

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#42
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard of pinhole cameras being used in card skimming operations where PIN numbers are required.

That doesn't do anything for a chip and pin card. You need the chip too.

Here in the uk they skim your card, create a replica and use a pinhole camera to get your pin.

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#43
I agree with a comment in the story - we need a better framework that actually supports non-replayable (ie, one-time) codes being transferred.

If Blizzard can give keyfobs to gamers for auth, why cant banks include that in tech for ATMs?

More and more I think corruption and fraud are the likely reasons - those are features the establishment wants to support, not prevent... they can profit from all of it.

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#44
post #14

I don't know if the design is effective... what prevents anyone from installing a skimmer on/within this device?

Current skimmers need a horizontal swipe to read. This device requires the user to insert the card in the wrong orientation for the skimmer. The device holds onto the magnetic strip end of the card while it rotates, so it's not possible to skim after the device has performed the rotation. It's not clear how difficult or easy it is to make a skimmer that reads a card that is swiped vertically, though.

It looks like the maximum amount a track can hold is 79 7-bit words [1], which comes out to 553 bits. Theoretically, a parallel reader would need 553 sensors, which seems fairly easy given today's manufacturing standards.

[1] http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-managem...

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#45
post #40
post #23

It's a nice idea (inserting the card widthways), but it's completely over-engineered. It's never going to be used as a retro-fit - it looks too much like a skimmer. In fact, if they became commonplace, it would make fitting skimmers that look like this device so much easier than trying to hide a skimmer in a discrete housing. Instead, allowing the card to be inserted widthways, and pulling it into the ATM as normal,…

In the Netherlands they're already outfitting ATMs and other credit machines with addons on the outside. Most ATMs also display a picture on the screen of what it's supposed to look like. So no, it's not that over engineered I think. On the other hand, because of the moving parts involved it is probably going to be much more expensive. And with the current chips on the card already, I don't think the banks are going…

Even better, the Dutch railways (NS) employ an add on that requires you to insert your card sideways, and then push it in. Solving the problem in the same fashion, yet not requiring any weird over-engineered rotation system.

See here: http://blog.webwereld.nl/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nspas.jp...

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#46
post #23

It's a nice idea (inserting the card widthways), but it's completely over-engineered. It's never going to be used as a retro-fit - it looks too much like a skimmer. In fact, if they became commonplace, it would make fitting skimmers that look like this device so much easier than trying to hide a skimmer in a discrete housing. Instead, allowing the card to be inserted widthways, and pulling it into the ATM as normal,…

> In fact, if they became commonplace, it would make fitting skimmers that look like this device so much easier than trying to hide a skimmer in a discrete housing.

It's sad, but this was my very first thought as well.

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#47

I don't know much about the mechanical implications of this, but why not move the sensor instead of the card? Put the card in longways first, halfway in. Motorized sensor moves across card to scan it. There wouldn't be enough room left over for a skimmer that would still allow the ATM to read it and even if there was a skimmer, it makes the skimmer that much more expensive, since it would have to have a motor too. I…

[deleted]

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#48
post #43

I agree with a comment in the story - we need a better framework that actually supports non-replayable (ie, one-time) codes being transferred. If Blizzard can give keyfobs to gamers for auth, why cant banks include that in tech for ATMs? More and more I think corruption and fraud are the likely reasons - those are features the establishment wants to support, not prevent... they can profit from all of it.

If Blizzard can give keyfobs to gamers for auth, why cant banks include that in tech for ATMs?

Well, banks here in Portugal do offer one-time authorization codes, either by SMS (default) or keyfob, but only for online operations, not in ATMs.

That said, a Chip and PIN solution prevents (in theory) this problem, since it can actually authenticate the transaction by providing a cryptographic signature, without ever exposing the private key to either the ATM or any skimmer.

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#49
post #42
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't do anything for a chip and pin card. You need the chip too.

Here in the uk they skim your card, create a replica and use a pinhole camera to get your pin.

As far as I know, you can't skim the chip. In the EMV system, the private key is only accessible to the internal "CPU", not the reader.

Re: Hacker serving 5-year sentence invents ATM add-on to prevent theft

#50
I remember reading about a solution where the ATM would move the card back and forth while pulling it in (maybe even reading it at the same time, but it's not even necessary), preventing the skimmer from successfully reading it. Sounds like a better solution to me. (The problem with chips are, at the moment, is that the magnetic stripe is still used. So if they can read it then the card is stolen.)
Post reply on HN