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.

This leaves systems and ATMs vulnerable to hacking attacks as Microsoft has since stopped providing support and security updates to the operating system. Van Tuijl said banks and financial institutions should update their operating software to a current, supported version to avoid being victims of hackers.