E2E Security needs E2E Partnership

Is there any one out there that can doubt the success of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and the positive socio/economic effects that it has brought to the market place?

The public benefit from cash access at the nearest point of usage, providing 24x7 conveniences to their shopping experience, reducing risks associated with carrying large volumes of cash over long periods and one stop shopping from the diverse range of non cash services offered. Retailer’s benefit from increased retail activity born from localised cash access driving impulse spending. The economy gains from fast distribution and recycling of banknotes, a multi billion-dollar industry that is not constrained by international financial boundaries.

With over 1.6 million ATM’s now deployed across the world combined with the capabilities to deliver an ever diverse range of non cash services like balance enquires, cell phone top up’s, purchasing tickets to online shopping aids, the ATM has become the most important and versatile customer relationship management tool for the service providers.

In the march to optimise this powerful service channel, providers are now looking to maximise the foot fall at the ATM by fine tuning the positioning of the ATM as close as possible to the point of need; the point of sales.
Remotely sited ATM’s; through the wall ATM’s sited in retail high streets or free standing ATM’s sited within retail shops, are the dominant growing trend, stimulated by the aggressive strategies of Independent ATM Deployers (IAD’s), now account for over 30% of the globally deployed networks and in some countries such as UK and Ireland make-up 70% of the deployments.

The Problem

As these factors will combine to make the ATM more available and usable to a broader target audience it will also become a more visible and tangible target to criminals.

The escalating trend in ATM deployments has also seen a growth of the hard and often violent attacks upon the actual ATM units or within the cash replenishment process that supports the ATM.
These attacks range from the crude and opportunist to the highly sophisticated and pre-planned, from “snatch attack” to “ram raids” and “hostage duress” to “tiger kidnaps”. The key characteristics being that a broad range of criminals using a diverse range of methods seek opportunity and weakness throughout the complete end-to-end cash flow process.
Marry this to a cash process which combines cash centre processing, cash in transit, ATM replenishment, in ATM storage and remittance collection on its long journey to our pockets, processes that have very divergent operational needs and security characteristics that include several business partnerships within the business model and the complexity of providing uniform continuous protection through the ATM’s cash life cycle becomes clear.

The negative effects from criminal attacks, successful or not cannot be under-rated. From loss of public confidence, risk to service staff, down time of the ATM to loss of retail business. These factors demand that corrective security solutions are deployed on an urgent and reactive basis, often only allowing security upgrades to be deployed directly in the cash flow process that suffered the attack, leading to a myriad of point specific security solutions that need to hand off security at each stage of the operational process. Align this with the fact that crime does not reduce in real terms it merely migrates to the point of least resistance and maximum reward. It is inevitable that improving security at any single point in the ATM cash and replenishment process will drive the criminals to the next weakest point in the chain, not resolving the burden of attacks, simply migrating them on.

So what is needed to close these windows of opportunity to the criminals? A versatile protection technique that lives with the cash valuable at the closest point through out the cash cycle regardless of the process stage and regardless of the business ownership. Creating a uniform level of protection that is consistent, forcing the criminal not to the next process point but away from the entire service activity.

The Solution

The application of innovative technology in the last thirty years has become a key technique in the protection of all forms of cash but now especially ATM cash.

Cash degradation systems, (the technique of neutralising the value of cash media during an attack by staining with indelible dye to render the cash useless to the criminal) is now well established and an accepted protection technique, many European countries now driving to mandate its use through regulation.
This versatile and user-friendly technology can and is being effectively applied; protecting cash at cassette level throughout the ATM cash process.

The ATM market is a highly competitive market for the original equipment manufacturers, for the ATM deployers and for the cash service providers, driving continuous improvement programs that evolve business models, operational techniques and security processes to improve revenue, reduce costs and maximise security. These changes filter down into the requirements from cash degradation solutions and need to be managed into the product roadmaps to ensure that the end to end security once achieved can be maintained.

This will only be achieved if long term strategic partnerships are developed that provide the suppliers with the visibility of business and operational changes that will impact their solution platforms well in advance of requirement, whilst it is key that the customers of these solutions have clear visibility of the next generation technologies and innovative ideas that can aid future business aspirations.

Conclusion.

Criminals have learnt to explore and attack the whole end-to-end cash process lurching in continuous cycles from one opportunity to the next exploiting a vulnerable point until it is reinforced. Innovative companies like Spinnaker International Limited have created E2E banknote degradation solutions that can provide a common consistent and seamless level of protection through out the ATM cash life cycle. But the most consistent evolution of these solutions can only be achieved if all the stakeholders establish open and committed long-term partnerships driving investment and combining knowledge.

Spinnaker International Limited is the worlds leading provider for banknote degradation systems for the transportation and storage of cash and ATM cassettes since 1985. Winner of the Queens Award for Enterprise / Innovation 2006.