The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released an emergency FLASH alert warning U.S. financial institutions about a surge in ATM “jackpotting” attacks powered by Ploutus malware. The threat enables criminals to force ATMs to dispense cash without using a bank card, customer account, or backend authorization. By targeting the machine rather than customer credentials, attackers can rapidly drain large sums before the fraud is detected. Ploutus operates by abusing the eXtensions for Financial Services (XFS) software layer, which manages ATM hardware functions such as the cash dispenser, card reader, and receipt printer. Instead of relying on legitimate banking applications to send commands through XFS, the malware injects its own instructions, compelling the dispenser to release money on demand. Once installed, the ATM effectively becomes a cash machine fully controlled by threat actors. To deploy the malware, attackers typically gain physical access to the ATM. Methods include opening machines with generic manufacturer keys, connecting unauthorized USB devices, or removing and reimaging the hard drive with malicious files. In some cases, remote-access tools are also used to stage or interact with the infection. Because many ATMs run Windows-based systems, Ploutus variants can be adapted across multiple vendors with minimal modification. The FBI reports nearly 1,900 jackpotting incidents since 2020, with a significant spike in 2025 alone. Institutions are urged to strengthen physical locks, implement device and application whitelisting, enable robust logging, encrypt hard drives, verify firmware integrity, and promptly report suspicious activity to support ongoing investigations.
Silver Fox APT is presently running sophisticated targeted attacks in Taiwan that combine DLL sideloading with Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) techniques to deploy the Win...
A high-severity vulnerability identified in the widely used JavaScript PDF generation library jsPDF exposes millions of applications to PDF Object Injection attacks. Reported by GB...
A profit-driven threat actor leveraged several commercial generative AI platforms to breach more than 600 FortiGate devices across 55+ countries between January 11 and February 18,...