Explosive gas attacks on the increase in Europe

Explosive gas attacks are on the increase in Europe.  According to the European ATM Security Team explosive and gas attacks rose by 88% in 2010, when compared to 2009, increasing from 148 reported incidents in 2009 to 278 in 2010.

It is not all plain sailing for the criminals though:  In a recent attack reported in Croatia thieves detonated gas from a cylinder in order to rob an ATM machine in the small locality of Mihovljani in Zagorje (north of Zagreb).  The thieves blew up the ATM machine late in the evening of Wednesday 20th April after it had been filled with cash.  The ATM was located in a retail store which was demolished in the incident.

EMV, a view from America.....

A lot is heard about EMV from those countries that are embracing it, but what about the view from the US?  The European Payments Council have today published their latest news letter.  In it there is a very good article entitled  “The Magnetic Stripe: Why it is Hard for Americans to Say Good-Bye  - In the US, clinging to old-fashioned payment methods is more than just a bad habit”. 

Some key points from the article, which is written by Bob Sullivan, are below:

• US banks generally perceive fraud losses to be less than the cost of upgrading the card infrastructure to comply with EMV standards. Until those lines cross, there are no incentives for the US financial system to engage in such a dramatic change.
• It might however be worth the while to do the maths again. Some US card industry observers recently indicated that losses due to fraudulent card transactions in the US might already exceed the costs of EMV migration.
• It should not be expected that the US government will enforce migration to EMV.
• US consumers are satisfied with the fraud fighting measures other than chip and personal identification number (PIN) technology, which are currently in place. In their view, having to enter a PIN when making a card payment creates a ‘solution in search of a problem’.
• More could be done however to enlist consumers as fraud-fighters and to convince them of the added value of chip and PIN technology. US travellers whose magnetic stripe cards are increasingly refused as a means of payment in Europe, could be the first to ask for change.
• It will take a combination of consumer education, ease of use, cost-saving technological advancements, clearer fraud accountability and government enticements to break down the Americans’ loyalty to the magnetic stripe card

You can read the whole article on the EPC website

Two major US Banks to trial EMV cards....

I have been going on for some time about the need for the USA to take some concrete steps towards the implementation of the EMV standard - as it falls further and further behind the rest of the world.  So it was with interest that I read an article published by the Mail Online a couple of days ago.  It seems that two of the largest U.S. banks, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo will start to trial EMV cards.  The trial will be available to larger business customers and frequent travellers. 

One driver for such change is of course fraud, in particular card skimming, and the US market is likely to become a honeypot for skimming fraudsters as they move there to practise techniques honed in other parts of the world during the shift towards the EMV.  As recently reported by the European ATM Security Team (EAST), losses due to card skimming at ATMs in Europe have fallen for the sixth sucessive six month reporting period, and an  increasing proportion of such losses are now international, i.e. occuring outside the card issuer's country.  It would be interesting to see similar statistics for the USA.

The other driver for change to EMV is of course that the holders of stripe only cards are increasingly unable to use their cards for transactions at Chip only terminals.  The article in the Mail Online quotes a study that has quantified the impact of such lost transactions - according to financial advisory firm Aite Group a 2009 study found that issues with U.S. cards not being accepted abroad cost $4 billion in missed transactions in 2008.  Since then there has been significant further roll out of EMV globally and so I'm guessing that the equivalent figure for 2010 will have been a lot larger.  And then of course there is the matter of reputational risk as disgruntled card holders realise that their bank is issuing them with cards that are not fit for purpose in all markets.

Two of the largest U.S. banks have announced that are to start EMV card pilots, I wonder how long it will take others to follow?

Need more information?  Read the full article on the Mail Online

European ATM fraud losses continue to fall, down by 14%........

The European ATM Security Team (EAST) has just released figures for the full year 2010 which show a second annual fall in European ATM fraud losses - total losses of €268 million were reported (down €44 million from €312 million in 2009 - see the table at the end of this post).  This is the second successive annual drop, following on from the 36% fall reported for 2009 and is very good news for the region.

EAST also reports that the majority (82%) of ATM related card skimming losses are now international with most occurring in countries outside of Europe, and states that that the significant investment made by the European banking sector into EMV technology, as well as into anti-skimming devices at ATMs, is now really starting to pay off.  Well so it should!  European ATM deployers and card issuers have been investing into EMV technology for at least 8 years now, and this drop in losses is a further return on that investment. 

Do you change your PIN at an ATM?

That's the question being asked by the European ATM Security Team (EAST) in the latest online ATM Research poll on their website.

When a PIN is issued to a cardholder by their card issuer, there is often the option to visit an ATM to change it.  Have you ever changed yours?  There seem to be two possible reasons to so do:

1.  You are worried that your PIN may have been compromised and want to change it

2.  You have just been issued a new PIN and want to change it to make it easier to remember.

Visit the EAST ATM Research page to have your say........and you can also download the results of past EAST polls.