5 Ways to Improve ATM Safety

ATM safety is just as important as monitoring any other area where financial transactions are made or cash is kept. Where there is money, there will be thieves trying to get to it.

You don’t need to abandon your ATM business because of potential risks. It is no more vulnerable than any cash register anywhere. You simply need to remain aware of threats. Just like you know where your purse or wallet is at all times, or monitor your bank statements for unauthorized transactions, or keep your personal vault barricaded and locked, utilize this same diligence to improve ATM safety.

Make sure you take appropriate precautions and don’t cut any corners when it comes to securing your ATM machine. Follow these 5 ATM safety tips to ensure that your assets as well as your customers’ data remain secure.

Common Threats to ATM Safety

ATM safety threats apply to the ATM cash itself as well as to customer card information and account access. ATM attacks can be logical or physical. 

Physical Attacks

Physical attacks include equipment damages in an attempt to access the cash inside. Thieves can go as far as trying to remove or steal the entire machine from a location or even using explosives to breach the chassis, or front, of the machine.

Equipment attacks typically happen after hours when no one is around and pose little threat to customers. However, physical attacks can threaten customer safety in other ways. For example, customers can be robbed after making a withdrawal, or they can be forced to make withdrawals or give up financial information.

Physical attacks can also threaten customers through ATM tampering. Pinhole cameras, fake fronts, skimmers/shimmers, Lebanese loops, and counterfeit PIN pads are all ways thieves can gain access to customer bank cards and PINs and therefore access their accounts and funds.

Logical Attacks

Logical attacks, on the other hand, refer to software hacking. Some attackers attempt to infect ATMs with malware or hack into the ATM’s operating system to gain control over the machine and steal information or cash. This threatens customer data as well as the cash inside the ATM. Some hackers are content with collecting account numbers and PINs while others can cause the ATM to malfunction resulting in the emptying of the vault through seemingly legitimate transactions.

But don’t worry. Independent ATM breaches aren’t that common, especially if you take the right ATM safety precautions. First of all, the more fortified a machine is, the less likely someone is to try to breach it. The more time and effort a breach requires, the more risk that’s involved. Furthermore, experienced thieves know that independent ATM machines don’t hold enough cash to make the effort worth the risk.

5 Ways to Improve ATM Safety

Here are some ways you can improve ATM safety for both your business and your customers:

Utilize Surveillance

First and foremost is to have eyes on the machine at all times. Whether you place your machine in direct eyesight from the register or install security cameras or both, witnesses are sure to deter thieves. Your location may already have security cameras on the premises, or you can install your own fairly cheaply from retailers like Costco or Amazon (we recommend a two-camera system). If you have an outdoor machine, it might be in view of the cameras of neighboring businesses. 

Whatever the situation, it doesn’t hurt to put up a sign that alerts passersby that the machine is under video surveillance. This not only helps deter thieves, but it also makes customers more comfortable using your machine knowing that they are less likely to be approached. And if anything happens, it can be reassuring to know that there will be video evidence.

Some machines come equipped with a camera system as well. A standard feature of Genmega machines, for example, is the GenCam camera system. This allows customers (and criminals) to see themselves on screen. For criminals, this is a huge deterrent. They definitely don’t want their face captured and can see right away that it will be. For customers, they can better monitor their surroundings and protect themselves from “shoulder surfers”, attackers looking over their shoulder to observe their PIN as it’s entered.

Light ATM Area

Another simple way to improve ATM safety, deter crime, and increase customer comfortability is to make sure the ATM area is well-lit. The more attention your machine receives, the better. You don’t want users or thieves to feel obscured from the public eye. This can deter customers and embolden criminals.

You want the machine to be secured and barricaded, but not hidden. There is a fine line between securing and obscuring your machine. 

Secure Machine

To prevent some physical attacks, it’s important to make sure that your machine is secured. The harder it is to get to or move, the longer an attack will take, and the more risk that’s involved for thieves. Thieves looking for easy targets will likely move on if they see that your machine is properly secured.

This is why it is of the utmost importance that you bolt your machine to the ground. While some location owners might have some initial reservations about this, it only takes a couple of minutes to explain how important it is. Most machines don’t weigh too much more than a full-grown man, so if it isn’t bolted to the floor, it really won’t take much to jostle or remove the machine completely. 

Make sure that the machine is bolted to level ground so that no crowbars or other tools can be wedged between the machine and the floor. And after installing the machine, shove it on all sides to ensure that it doesn’t budge. Place the machine away from doors and windows if possible to prevent easy access to it after business hours.

You can further improve ATM safety by barricading the sides with other furniture that create even more obstacles to accessing the equipment. This is especially important in protecting your machine from logical attacks. You don’t want hackers to be able to access the mainboard and other internal electronics to manipulate the software or hardware. 

Inspect Machine

You want to regularly inspect your machine to identify any signs of tampering. When you vault and/or when cleaning your machine, run your hand over all surfaces feeling for any loose or bulky areas or anything that doesn’t feel normal. Fake fronts, Lebanese loops, and counterfeit PIN pads might not be recognizable to the untrained eye, but if you check your machine regularly, these modifications will become obvious. You might have to look a little harder to spot a pinhole camera, but if you know what you are looking for, it should only take a second each time you visit the machine.

Keep an Irregular Vaulting Schedule

Keeping an irregular vaulting schedule can improve your safety and the safety of your vault cash. You don’t want someone to be able to predict when you and your machine will be vulnerable. Try to vault outside of business hours to minimize the amount of foot traffic around you when vaulting. And invest in an eLock if your machine doesn’t already have one to minimize the time you spend at the machine when cash is vulnerable. 

Monitor Activity

Finally, be diligent with monitoring your ATM’s activity. Remote online monitoring makes this quick and easy. It’s something you can do from an app on your phone. Knowing what “normal” ATM activity looks like allows you to quickly recognize when something isn’t right. 

For example, if you notice an unusual increase in withdrawals or unusually high withdrawal amounts, this could be a sign that someone has hacked into the machine and caused it to malfunction. The sooner you identify the breach, the sooner you can address it and prevent further loss. 

Remote online monitoring can also alert you to any major shifts or blows to the ATM equipment. Getting this alert could be a sign of an attempted breach or removal of the machine. But you’ve got to know your machine(s) well to be able to identify any anomalies. However, you need to know this anyway to properly vault the machine, so just don’t take unusual activity lightly. If something seems off, check on it.

Conclusion

We didn’t write this article to make you nervous. We wrote it to help you think of threats you might not have considered before. Knowing possible vulnerabilities allows you to take the appropriate precautions and prevent disasters.

To identify possible weaknesses in your ATM security, put yourself in the shoes of criminals. Are there any areas that aren’t properly secured? Are there any “invitations” to breaching the machine? Then, put yourself in the shoes of your customers. Do you feel safe using the machine? Are there any witnesses? Is your financial information secure?

All it really takes to improve ATM safety is a little foresight and preparation. If you take your ATM safety seriously, you can consider yourself a challenging target and therefore less likely to experience theft or tampering.