Bitcoin ATMs by General Bytes Compromised by Hackers, Undisclosed Amount of Assets Stolen

Internal investigations by the General Bytes team showed that the hackers gained access to its ‘Crypto Application Server’ (CAS) and managed to extract funds.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 22 August 2022 17:33 IST

Bitcoin ATMs by General Bytes Compromised by Hackers, Undisclosed Amount of Assets Stolen

Photo Credit: Twitter/ @ChainBytes

General Bytes reportedly operates over 8,800 Bitcoin ATMs in over 120 countries

Highlights

The Bitcoin ATM hackers have not yet been identified
The number of ATMs attacked and the amount stolen remain undisclosed
General Bytes, Genesis Coin, and BitAccess are popular BTC ATM makers

General Bytes, a manufacturer of Bitcoin ATMs has become a hack attack target after its systems were recently compromised. Internal investigations by the General Bytes team showed that the hackers gained access to its ‘Crypto Application Server' (CAS) and managed to extract funds. The CAS server is responsible for enabling the buying and selling of Bitcoin from the ATM. After gaining access to the CAS, the hackers declared themselves as the admin of the CAS and transferred all the received BTC to their own wallets.

The Prague, Czech Republic-based company that reportedly owns and operates over 8,800 Bitcoin ATMs in over 120 countries, has confirmed the attack and asked ATM users to abstain from using its machines for a while.

“CAS security fix is provided in two server patch releases, 20220531.38 and 20220725.22. Do not continue to operate your GB ATM server unless you have implemented the solution. Reset all user passwords,” a blog post by General Bytes said.

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As per the company, the attack was identified three days after it publicly announced a ‘Help Ukraine' donation feature on its ATMs.

As of now, General Bytes has not disclosed the exact amount stolen by hackers in this attack. At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $21,295 (roughly Rs. 17 lakh) on international exchanges such as Binance and CoinMarketCap.

The crypto sector is gradually expanding around the world. In the backdrop, the installations of Bitcoin ATMs around the world have also risen in recent times.

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As per a recent Coin ATM Radar report, over 882 Bitcoin ATMs emerged in different parts of the world in the first ten days of June this year alone.

For now, the US has the largest number of BTC ATMs, making 87.9 percent of its global network, the report said. The US currently houses over 33,400 crypto ATMs.

As of now, popular companies that provide crypto ATM services include General Byte, Genesis Coin, BitAccess, Coinsource, and Bitstop.

These ATM machines facilitating the purchase and sale of Bitcoins remain under the eye of law enforcement agencies, that are trying to shield members of the crypto community from financial accidents.

Last year, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had however, warned people against using crypto ATMs, especially the ones that advertise anonymity for transactions.

Earlier this year, UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered all crypto ATMs operating in the country to suspend services citing illegal operations.

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Further reading: Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, Bitcoin ATMs, General Bytes, Hack

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More