Kids with operator’s manual alert bank officials: “We hacked your ATM”

Two 14-year-old Canadians hacked a Bank of Montreal ATM after finding an operator's manual online. The manual showed how to gain administrative control of the device, according to a media report published over the weekend.

When Matthew Hewlett and Caleb Turon tested the instructions against an ATM at a nearby supermarket, the ninth graders didn't expect them to work, The Winnipeg Sun reported Sunday. To their surprise, the machine quickly prompted them for a password. Even more surprising, their first guess—a six-character password that's common among default settings—let them in. The boys then reported their lunch-hour caper to bank employees, who at first thought the duo had merely acquired the PINs of an ATM customer.

"I said: 'No, no, no. We hacked your ATM. We got into the operator mode,'" Hewlett was quoted as saying. Then, the bank employees asked for proof.

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