Home technology security shocking ATM loophole allows withdrawal of $1M

Shocking ATM loophole allows withdrawal of $1M

Security

CIO Bulletin
2019-02-06

Does it sound like science fiction? It isn’t! An unsatisfied programmer at a bank found a perfect loophole in an ATM machine which was able to spew out free money up to $1 million. The reports come straight from China, where a 43-year-old Qin Qisheng, working at the Huaxia Bank went out of line and withdrew at least 7 million yuan.

That roughly amounts it to about $1 million USD. According to the reports surging the newspapers and other online platforms, the banking system wasn’t recording the withdrawals accurately around midnight. Qisheng went ahead to exploit this security loophole in the ATM machine.

The machine, apparently, would spit out cash without actually removing the total from the user’s account. When such a thing happens, generally, the bank sends a red flag about the failed transaction. However, our genius programmer allegedly inserted scripts into the system that suppressed those alerts.

That’s not all. Apparently, Qisheng has been pulling out money from the ATM for 2 years, from November 2016. It was only after this 1,358th withdrawal last month did the authorities notice the bad code in the banking system. Qisheng has been brought to the authorities and awaits further decisions.