ATM Industry Association
Technology

ATM Industry Group Eyes Security for Members

With the release of a set of recent reports, the ATM Industry Association is helping to keep its members on top of the cybersecurity dangers to both operators and consumers.

The ATM industry is usually on top of the latest trends—last month, for example, a Polish company combined a vehicle-based ATM with the basic concept of Uber. Just as importantly, it’s also on top of the latest threats.

That’s thanks, in large part, to the work of the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA), which has been working on informing its members of the dangers that ATM operators face with the devices, which obviously control valuable assets.

An example of this came last year, when two Ukranian men were arrested for their role in a malware scheme that infected numerous ATMs in the Chinese territory of Macau. The men installed a circuit board in at least seven ATMs that allowed them to collect card numbers and PIN codes. The scheme netted the men $100,000 before they were caught, according to security writer Brian Krebs.

The Macau Malware, as it was called, is just one of the cases highlighted in an ATMIA report, “Best Practices for Preventing ATM Malware, Black Box and Cyber-Attacks,” released last month. An extension of an earlier report from the group, it includes details on that data breach along with a series of others that have similarly colorful names—such as Skimer-A, Dump Memory Grabber, and Backdoor Ploutus.

The goal? To help ensure that industry members are well-informed.

“[W]e decided to provide a shorter, standalone manual for our members to help prevent the most serious and urgent cyber threats,” ATMIA CEO Mike Lee said in a news release. “We can radically combat cyber fraud if we stand together and implement all the guidelines across every market.”

On the keeping-vendors-informed front, the association recently offered members an alert on skimming—a common form of ATM fraud. The advisory gave them data on the kind of eavesdropping strategies used with the devices.

“International surveys show that skimming remains the No. 1 type of ATM fraud, and this variation of skimming methodology needs to be vigorously countered by our industry,” ATMIA’s Lee stated, according to ATM Marketplace.

(Wavebreakmedia Ltd/ThinkStock)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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