The future of cash management has already begun

The time of cash dis­tri­bu­ti­on at the bank coun­ter is over. More and more bran­ches are being clo­sed, while the volu­me of cash in cir­cu­la­ti­on and the num­ber of ATMs instal­led is rising, accord­ing to the Bun­des­bank. This radi­cal chan­ge can be exp­lai­ned by cost-cut­ting mea­su­res taken by banks plagued by nega­ti­ve inte­rest rates and chan­ging con­su­mer needs. While the BSI clear­ly defi­nes cash sup­ply as a cri­ti­cal sup­ply ser­vice, the­re has been an incre­a­se in attacks on ATMs and thus on cash sup­ply in recent years. The pro­tec­tion of ATMs is con­se­quent­ly com­ing into incre­a­sed focus.

Intelligent cash management

In the future, cash manage­ment will need to beco­me more cus­to­mer-friend­ly, less expen­si­ve and the­re­fo­re more intel­li­gent in order to keep pace with digi­tal pay­ment alter­na­ti­ves. Approa­ches to this inclu­de auto­ma­ted ATM moni­to­ring with the aid of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, as well as coope­ra­ti­ons with retailers for cash pay­ments to cus­to­mers direct­ly at the check­out (cashback).The incre­a­sing intel­li­gence in cash manage­ment enab­les and deman­ds com­ple­te­ly new IT secu­ri­ty solutions.

Consolidation of the market

At the same time, spe­cia­lists are emer­ging who are pla­cing the ATM busi­ness at the cen­ter of their busi­ness model. The­se spe­cia­lists use gaps in the ser­vice pro­vi­ded by banks to set up their own ATMs or offer banks moni­to­ring ser­vices for their machi­nes. By focu­sing on the ATM busi­ness in this way, con­si­derable poten­ti­al savings can be achieved.

Previous protective measures

The BKA has obser­ved a signi­fi­cant incre­a­se in the num­ber of phy­si­cal and logi­cal attacks on ATMs in recent years. Incre­a­sing roll­outs of effec­ti­ve pre­ven­ti­on mecha­nisms such as gas pro­tec­tion units and ink pro­tec­tion tech­no­lo­gies are making phy­si­cal attacks on ATMs less lucra­ti­ve for cri­mi­nals by com­pli­ca­ting the attack or lea­ving the cash unus­able. The­re­fo­re, a decre­a­se in phy­si­cal attacks can be expected.

Logical attacks as a new challenge

Once a pro­fes­sio­nal atta­cker gains access to the ser­vice area of an ATM, he is able to trig­ger pay­ments. Cri­mi­nals can trig­ger unaut­ho­ri­zed pay­ments by instal­ling mal­wa­re on the built-in PC (jack­pot­ting) or by con­nec­ting their own con­trol modu­le to the payout unit (black­boxing). Accord­ing to the BKA, the­re is also an incre­a­se in the pro­duc­tion and dis­tri­bu­ti­on of tools that make such attacks pos­si­ble for less tech­ni­cal­ly skil­led criminals.

The pro­blem is that unli­ke the vault area, the ser­vice area is only weak­ly pro­tec­ted. In the near future, access to the ser­vice area by unaut­ho­ri­zed per­sons will thus beco­me the grea­test vul­nera­bi­li­ty of ATMs, for which new pro­tec­ti­ve mea­su­res will have to be taken.

PHYSEC SEAL offers effective protection

With the help of our auto­ma­ted 3D con­di­ti­on assess­ment, the ent­i­re inte­rior of the ATM can be moni­to­red. This enab­les us to secu­re ATMs not only against phy­si­cal attacks on the vault, but also against logi­cal attacks in the ser­vice area.

The benefits of PHYSEC SEAL

PHYSEC’s 3D sen­sor crea­tes a phy­si­cal repre­sen­ta­ti­on of the ATM:

  • Con­di­ti­ons can be detec­ted in real time (door open, ano­ma­lies on the safe housing or wit­hin the ser­vice area)
  • Con­di­ti­on chan­ges in the swit­ched-off sys­tem can also be detec­ted, blur­ring of traces is impossible
  • Exis­ting secu­ri­ty sys­tems can easi­ly be exten­ded with our solution
  • The PHYSEC solu­ti­on can be used inde­pendent­ly of the device manu­fac­tu­rer and instal­la­ti­on can be car­ri­ed out by trai­ned SLM ser­vice personnel

Learn more about our solution

SEAL integrity monitoring

Our SEAL solu­ti­on can be instal­led in ATMs or cash-in devices of any size and alerts in case of unaut­ho­ri­zed intru­si­on or occur­ring dama­ge to the device.

Personal consultation

Respond to the rising thre­at level and pre­vent tomorrow’s attacks. We at PHYSEC will be hap­py to ans­wer your ques­ti­ons. Talk direct­ly to our exe­cu­ti­ves now.

Dr. Chris­ti­an Zen­ger, CEO
email: christian.zenger@physec.de

Dr. Hei­ko Koep­ke, CFO
email: heiko.koepke@physec.de