Continued use of obsolete systems led to recent ATM hacks

The spate of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) hacks last month were due to financial institutions’ continued use of obsolete operating systems and lack of “penetration testing”, opined an IT security consultant.

Jacco Van Tuijl, who conducts penetration testing (sanctioned hacking into systems to determine their vulnerability to attacks) for banks in the Netherlands, pointed out that many ATMs still use the now-obsolete, 13-year-old Windows XP operating system.