The media has been hyper-focused of late on the online threats to financial services firms posed by hackers.

In the wake of the RSA fiasco and the breach at Citigroup, this is understandable. But there are other threats out there, such as skimming of ATMs and other card readers. And in that department, it's a pleasure to report some good news. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan and the New York Field Office of the Secret Service has indicted four men in a skimming scheme that led to the theft of more than $1.5 million from multiple accounts maintained at Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase over the last year and a half.

The crime--unsurprisingly--had an international cachet. Three of those indicted were from Romania, and one was from Austria. Two were arrested in Chicago. The other two were arrested in Miami as they tried to board an international flight. Their alleged crimes involved overlay devices that were installed on top of ATMs in bank branches and card readers used by customers to gain access to bank vestibules that housed ATMs, according to BankInfo Security.

We're at the point in the on-going financial crime wave that skimming almost seems passé. But it remains a significant problem, one that banks need to combat with renewed vigor. Certainly more education is warranted by banks. The incident suggests that ATM skimmers have set their sights on machines that are located behind locked doors. Previously, they seemed more prone to target ATMs and other card-readers (such as gas dispensers) in open, unprotected areas.

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