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Comment by s9w | Hacker News Reader

In German the go-to method of "hacking" ATMs is blowing them up. I think they use some kind of gas to funnel inside the chassis and then ignite it. That seems to work exceedingly well, the numbers of that happening are insane. Is that not a thing in the US?

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https://whyy.org/articles/money-goes-boom-phillys-history-of...

Seemed to happen in Philadelphia often this year. Many gases could do the job with the right amount of oxygen.

Canada had an interesting duo that used portable welders to cut holes in just the right spot. The travelled around a lot and hit 50 indoor ATMs after-hours (interesting video): https://youtu.be/HWg6GcthZi8?t=44

While you can weld with a torch and they are portable(no electricity), don't really call them 'welders'.

In Ireland, they just use a backhoe to cart the whole thing off:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTe0cdxdSEo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTyON6gPTFI

Ah, and here was a failed attempt to do the same in Virginia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2TSGyXejls

How much cash does an ATM hold anyway?

Happens in England too

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/23/ram-raiders-...

600 bigOnes at most.

That sounds like it would certainly blast it open, doesn't it also burn the currency inside? Or is that well-protected enough it doesn't happen?

ATMs generally keep the money in locked boxes that are detachable. This boxes are designed for transport, and offer very little in terms of security.

The blast pops the box out, then the box can be opened with regular worshop tools in a safe house.

I’ve seen ATMs that warn they will release a red dye when tampering is detected that makes the cash unusable. Don’t know if that actually happens.

The trays do blow the red ink, however there are companies that (illegally) remove the unremoveable marking ink. Being part of a research group regarding ATM security was a really nice experience for me. It's a different world, full of unexpected things.

Most ATM’s are cheap Hyosung, tranax, etc. they most certainly do not have dye packs.

Source: I used to operate some ATM’s as a side biz.

They do get stolen by brute force, being dragged onto trucks with winches and chains. But not so much blowing them up.

Problem is the "towables" won't hold as much cash as built-in ones at a branch. And you still need to break into them later.

> And you still need to break into them later.

I would think that after you had physical possession of the ATM this would be a non-issue. You're free to do whatever you want with it, as long as it's hidden well enough it doesn't get tracked down.

How hard would it be though to have a small GPS tracker in the same secured area the money is in? I know there are a few instances of people hauling them off but it doesn't seem that well thought out or any indication this is successful more than other modest robberies.

If they started doing this I'm assuming they would put it inside some sort of faraday bag

I would assume that, as with anything else, unrestricted physical access == game over.

A GPS tracker in the money compartment is an interesting idea, but I would think that it wouldn't be to hard to defeat with either a faraday something or other or just disrupt the GPS signal [0].

That being said, this requires someone to be thinking about it, which may or may not be happening.

[0] https://www.economist.com/international/2013/07/27/out-of-si...

> And you still need to break into them later.

There's not much a few basic power tools can't get into, given enough time to use them.

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