April 16, 2009

Hackers find how to steal PIN numbers

It used to be that hackers who wanted o steal PIN numbers would have to do this one by one; this would normally mean that they would have to use skimming, cameras fitted to ATM machines or by phishing attacks.

However, in the US it has been found that when a PIN number in entered the data is transmitted to the bank, this is encrypted and therefore believed to be ultra safe. Yet it seems that hackers have been able to decrypt these transmissions and therefore manage to collect PIN number wholesale.

If this is true and there is no reason to think that it is not, then this could be another serious flaw within the banking system and could affect the way that people go about doing their shopping and paying for other services.

Source [Wired]