A HACKER has stolen the show at a security conference by forcing ATMs to spit out cash.
Barnaby Jack spent two years tinkering in his Silicon Valley apartment with ATMs he bought online. They were standalone machines, the type seen in convenience stores, rather than the ones in bank branches. His goal was to find ways to take control of ATMs by exploiting weaknesses in the computers that run the machines.
At the Black Hat conference - an annual gathering devoted to exposing the latest computer-security vulnerabilities - he made three ATMs disgorge thousands of dollars onto the floor.
Upping the cool stakes, Mr Jack also forced the machines to display the word "Jackpot" while it was haemorrhaging cash. His talk was one of the conference's most widely anticipated, as it had been pulled a year ago over concerns that fixes for the ATMs wouldn't be in place in time.
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