In Hours, Thieves Took $45 Million in A.T.M. Scheme
I wish that my bank would let me set a message to pop up whenever withdrawals over a certain amount (or percentage) are made. If we can't be secure, I'd at least like my would-be-account-ruiners to know "LOL STUDENT ACCT". What would be even better is if every time I accessed an ATM it would snap a photo (so many are all recording video anyway) and put it into my account mailbox to view the same way I view checks. That way I could track my facial expression over time as I watch my account go from $XXXX to $XX every time the rent is paid and chart it along with other personal metrics. On the off chance that someone does steal my card/pin/... at least I would be able to shame take a moment shaming them in Photoshop out of... grief?<p>---<p>This actually got me thinking about a relatively straight-forward way to make ATMs more secure. Many ATMs have cameras and are, presumably, recording each time someone makes a transaction. I don't know exactly how the system works, but here's what I think:<p>- People who use ATMs should pretty much expect to be recorded in some fashion for security purposes, even if it's just a camera in the corner of the room.<p>- By using an ATM most people, even the privacy-conscious, would agree to this amount of surveillance. If not, they are welcome to visit their bank during regular business hours, in a ski mask if they prefer, or better yet use the inside of their mattresses instead.<p>- Adding a camera to a device, particularly one like an ATM, is trivial to implement and should only make a slight difference in cost.<p>- This camera could also be sensitive to infrared or other bands in order to defeat the ski-mask (thieving) or eye-patch/bandage (handicapped or disfigured) crowds.<p>- The software could be made such that it only proceeds with certain actions IFF it recognizes that the camera is not being blocked, that it recognizes a face, and that the face is not being spoofed by a Polaroid or something silly.<p>- ATMs are networked and should be capable of uploading medium resolution photos. Assuming reasonable policies could be maintained, the photo could be sent over the wire directly to your card-issuing institution and then routed to you, perhaps with a 7-days-til-self-destruct mechanism. Obviously <i>you</i> could archive these if you wanted, but the point is that banks/credit companies would treat it the same as security footage, i.e. data glut that's only useful while it's fresh.<p>- As soon as you are made aware of some sort of fraud, you can simply report the transaction, with identifying snap, to the bank (who will hand it over to authorities).<p>I'll leave the potential problems of this system to your imaginations, but it seems to me like a fairly easy to adopt solution to small, regular ATM theft. Obviously a coordinated attack could perhaps find some sort of exploit, but maybe it could deter the small-timers enough to be worth it.<p>EDIT: I am aware that this doesn't solve any of the particulars in the article, but I still think it's "on topic" since we all like tech, and ATMs are tech :)