NEW YORK - Three foreign nationals were arrested and charged with siphoning more than $2 million from Citibank-branded ATMs at 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country in the biggest remote PIN code theft on record.
The hackers used the stolen information to make counterfeit cards and withdraw cash from the 7-Eleven machines, which are connected to most CU systems through Cardtronics Inc., which owns the ATMs. It is not clear if CUs or their members were affected by the breach.
Cardtronics said all of its ATMs have encrypted PIN pads, as well as triple data encryption, as required by the electronic funds transfer networks. “Additionally, Cardtronics’ processing platform complies with the PIN Security Requirements established by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) and has successfully completed a PCI PIN security field review performed by one of the major networks.”
The suspects were identified as Ivan Biltse, Angelina Kitaeva and Yuriy Rakushchynets, the latter a 32-year-old Ukrainian believed to be the ringleader. Authorities seized $800,000 in cash when they raided Rakushchynets’ Brooklyn home.
Authorities are investigating how the thieves tapped into the Citibank accounts. It is one of the first cases where criminals were able to access accounts through PINs. It is believed the hackers broke into the ATM network through a server at a third-party processor.(c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com
