ATM malware

[John Connor]

In 1983’s largely forgettable and campy Superman III, Richard Pryor’s “hacker” character makes cash spew out of a comically ancient ATM machine. In 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Edward Furlong’s John Connor character hacked an ATM with an ATARI, and a whole new generation of hacker dreams were born. At last, finally, someone pulled off the inevitable by creating malware that targets ATMs, and the payoff is cold hard cash — on demand.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/atm-malware-thieves/

Why are ATM's using text messages?

 

[KB]

"it infects the target machines through a boot-enabled CD-ROM drive."

" If there is any good news in these developments, it would have to be that thus far, the infections require privileged physical access to the system. In other words, ATMs can only be infected with assistance — or as they say in television detective dramas, “someone on the inside.”

ATM security is important but the story blows things out of proportion a bit.
If you can get physical access to the ATM, then you can physically just take the money or install any software you want.
This can be mitigated by only giving a small group access to the ATMs and by reviewing their work.

The ATM listens for text messages because the malware tells it to. I don't believe it is standard practice for ATMs to listen for text messages.