Uncle Sam accuses three suspected North Korean govt hackers of stealing $1.3bn+ from banks, crypto orgs Three suspected North Korean military intelligence hackers have been charged with, among other things, conspiring to loot more than $1.3bn (£938m) from banks, ATMs, and cryptocurrency companies, according to an indictment unsealed by the US Department of Justice on Wednesday. “North Korea’s operatives, using keyboards rather …
How can hackers in North Korea manage to extract large amounts of cash from ATMs in Pakistan without help from a gang of locals to do the leg work and pick up the bills as they are spat out?
Assuming Pakistani ATMs are similar to others on the subcontinent, they'll be good for accepting and dispensing cash, and maybe showing your bank balance, but that's all they can do.
Other stuff, like SWIFT gateway hacks, can can obviously be done remotely, but ATMs? C'mon.
From the indictment:
"On October 27, 2018, having gained unauthorized access to the computer network of [Pakistan's] BankIslami, the hackers caused fraudulent ATM withdrawal requests to be approved, which caused requesting ATMs to dispense approximately $6.1 million to money-launderer co-conspirators, including co-conspirators acting at the direction of unindicted co-conspirator Ghaleb Alaumary."
Uncle Sam says they had money launderers in Pakistan waiting to pick up the cash.
C.
There were either a lot of Pakistani money launderers running around collecting ATM bonuses or a few who were REALLY busy. I don't know what kind of max payout you can get from an ATM in Pakistan but if it was a grand a time, that was 6000 payouts.
This sounds more like a 'clearing the books' exercise just like the cops getting a gullible perp who has been arrested to cop to every unsolved crime on the books as 'Taken Into Consideration', because it will go easier for him if he admits to it now instead of later when they stitch him up.
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