Infrared Cameras Can be Used to Steal PINs from ATMs

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Researchers have found yet another way for unscrupulous characters to separate you from your bank cash. Using an infrared camera and custom software, the research team could recover ATM PIN numbers about 80 percent of the time by tracking the heat from the fingertips transferred onto the keypads.

With metal’s higher thermal conductivity, heat dissipated from those keypads almost instantly, making stealing numbers nearly impossible.]
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It is astounding how much time, money, and effort, both physical and intellectual, is spent coming up with ways to rob people.
You would think such hard working and/or intelligent people could, you know, actually work for a living like the rest of us had to.
 
GORANKAR said:
It is astounding how much time, money, and effort, both physical and intellectual, is spent coming up with ways to rob people.
You would think such hard working and/or intelligent people could, you know, actually work for a living like the rest of us had to.
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When you buy something that's heavily discounted, are you happy because you saved money? Or because you're screwing him over?

Not quite the same situation, but it does help understand that some peoples motivation is just to be mean.
 
Ah, yes, the old "assume people are assholes and you have your answer" axiom. Blame it on the fact I woke up feeling optimistic about the world and my fellow man this morning. I appreciate you reminding me of reality.
 
yanno, I've always thought myself a little paranoid for doing this, but whenever I'd punch my pin in whether its an ATM, gas station, or a store, I'd let my fingers rest a bit on other numbers in case they could do like in movies/tvshows and see what numbers I touched. Now I don't feel so paranoid for doing it.
 
GORANKAR said:
Ah, yes, the old "assume people are assholes and you have your answer" axiom. Blame it on the fact I woke up feeling optimistic about the world and my fellow man this morning. I appreciate you reminding me of reality.
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Don't worry--there's still plenty of reason to be optimistic...;) This article is kind of lame. The problem with it is that a human body is always going to be in the same position as the camera used here. Placing a camera in such a position at an ATM would not be feasible because the body of the person using the ATM would always block it. Secondly, if residual heat were to show up on the keys (assuming you could find a camera that could look right through a human body as if it wasn't there), what you could very well be seeing is the residual heat from the last 2-3 people to use the keys--which would be meaningless and worth nothing. Last, but certainly not least, if you were somehow magically able to overcome these problems and you got perfect images of each person's pin numbers every time, what would you have except *for* those pin numbers? You would not have the account numbers that go with the pins, and so, again, you would have nothing useful at all.

Take heart that only students in school have enough free time (devil's workshop, etc.) to come up with ideas that in the real world have no practical value whatsoever...;) That's reason enough for optimism, I should think.
 
They did this on Burn Notice almost a year ago. So if you are able to scan the keys and get a heat signiture off of them, how do you know in which order they were pushed?
 
WaltC said:
Don't worry--there's still plenty of reason to be optimistic...;) This article is kind of lame. The problem with it is that a human body is always going to be in the same position as the camera used here. Placing a camera in such a position at an ATM would not be feasible because the body of the person using the ATM would always block it. Secondly, if residual heat were to show up on the keys (assuming you could find a camera that could look right through a human body as if it wasn't there), what you could very well be seeing is the residual heat from the last 2-3 people to use the keys--which would be meaningless and worth nothing. Last, but certainly not least, if you were somehow magically able to overcome these problems and you got perfect images of each person's pin numbers every time, what would you have except *for* those pin numbers? You would not have the account numbers that go with the pins, and so, again, you would have nothing useful at all.

Take heart that only students in school have enough free time (devil's workshop, etc.) to come up with ideas that in the real world have no practical value whatsoever...;) That's reason enough for optimism, I should think.
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you would get that from the ATM after that person had typed it not during the process. So it wouldn't be "that" hard, would just need to setup the camerea somewhere to be pointed at the keypad at al times and get it when the person walks away.

A method like this would only be of use if you are planning on robbing people outside of an ATM, you steal the pin number then you rob them of their money that they took out and their card.

will say that they might want to study their math a little better. 4x4 = 16 not 24
 
whiz187 said:
They did this on Burn Notice almost a year ago. So if you are able to scan the keys and get a heat signiture off of them, how do you know in which order they were pushed?
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they stole that from the first splintercell video game :p
 
Actually i am the one that wants to study my math better. :p i'm the dumbass not thining of that correctly

4x3x2x1 would be 24
 
use a pen cap or other plastic/metal object to type in your pin, no heat signature
 
I use my sleeve or the bottom of my shirt or a knuckle. Those keys have more bacteria than the headworks of a wastewater plant. This article is silly.
 
WaltC said:
Don't worry--there's still plenty of reason to be optimistic...;) This article is kind of lame. The problem with it is that a human body is always going to be in the same position as the camera used here. Placing a camera in such a position at an ATM would not be feasible because the body of the person using the ATM would always block it. Secondly, if residual heat were to show up on the keys (assuming you could find a camera that could look right through a human body as if it wasn't there), what you could very well be seeing is the residual heat from the last 2-3 people to use the keys--which would be meaningless and worth nothing. Last, but certainly not least, if you were somehow magically able to overcome these problems and you got perfect images of each person's pin numbers every time, what would you have except *for* those pin numbers? You would not have the account numbers that go with the pins, and so, again, you would have nothing useful at all.

Take heart that only students in school have enough free time (devil's workshop, etc.) to come up with ideas that in the real world have no practical value whatsoever...;) That's reason enough for optimism, I should think.
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In the article on this that I read earlier this week, the weren't trying to read it while the person was still there. They waited until the person had left. Had something like a 80% success rate after 45 seconds, and 60% after 1 minute.
 
This is retarded. What good is a pin without the card? Far easier to demand someone's money at knife or gunpoint. More importantly, if you are going to commit a crime of this caliber, might as well go big and rob a cash business.
 
Exavior said:
you would get that from the ATM after that person had typed it not during the process. So it wouldn't be "that" hard, would just need to setup the camerea somewhere to be pointed at the keypad at al times and get it when the person walks away.

A method like this would only be of use if you are planning on robbing people outside of an ATM, you steal the pin number then you rob them of their money that they took out and their card.

will say that they might want to study their math a little better. 4x4 = 16 not 24
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wizdum said:
In the article on this that I read earlier this week, the weren't trying to read it while the person was still there. They waited until the person had left. Had something like a 80% success rate after 45 seconds, and 60% after 1 minute.
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Two items are being overlooked, first they clock starts ticking the moment the person enters their PIN number, and anyone whose been waiting for someone to use an ATM the average person is at the machine for far at least a couple minutes.

The second issue is that the keypads are also used for entering the value of cash you are withdrawing and/or transfering so more keys will be pressed them just the PIN numbers.

Of course this doesn't address the fact that they would still need the card, overall I'd have to agree with those above it said it would be much easier, and more effective to just take the money from the person when they leave the atm.
 
One could assume the camera mentioned in the article would be used on an ATM in which a false reader has been installed. A device which fastens over the point where you insert your bank card, and reads the magnetic strip and records the data to be reproduced later. Thus you have the pin, and the card allowing you to use their money as you please.
 
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