Security Features of ATM

Abstract

An ATM is an electronic device which allows a bank's customer to make cash withdrawals and check their account balance at any time without the need for a human teller. Many ATMs also allow depositing cash or cheques, transfer money between their banks. The World's first ATM was installed in ENFIELD town in the London on June 27, 1967 by Barclays bank.ATMs are known by various other names including Automated Transaction Machine, automated banking machine, cash point (in Britain),money machine, bank machine, cash machine, hole-in-the-wall, Bancomat (in various countries in Europe and Russia), Multibanco (after a registered trade mark, in Portugal), and Any Time Money (in India).

An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine (ATM), also known as an automated banking machine (ABM) in Canada, and a Cash point (which is a trademark of Lloyds TSB), cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerized telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. ATMs are known by various other names including ATM machine, automated banking machine, and various regional variants derived from trademarks on ATM systems held by particular banks.

Introduction of Security Features of ATM

Various protocols are used for transferring information over the network in the ATM. A few of them are explained in brief:

1. TCP (Transmission control protocol):

• Connection oriented protocol
• TCP is used to dynamically adapt to properties of the internetwork & to be robust to face any failures.

     2. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol):

• Simple ASCII protocol, Accepts incoming messages & sends them to appropriate locations.

      3. X.25:

• It is a standard network protocol, Connection oriented.
• Provides flow control.

      4.SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol):

• Used when information in entered through the keypad As most of the ATMs are open for 24 hrs & also all of them are not guarded, it is important to provide security to the machine. One of the technologies is explained here.

The Electronic Signature Lock (ESL) is a patented technology that can be implemented in hardware, firmware, or software and used to protect digital resources, funds transfer, or physical access. It can identify computer terminal users locally or remotely without having to modify or attach anything to the terminal. It is completely transparent to the users and can be used surreptitiously without their knowledge and still uniquely identify them.

The ESL is attached to or integrated into the protected resource, such as a computer or automatic bank teller machine (ATM). It will identify the local or remote terminal users as impostors even if they know all the pass words, access codes, and protocols for accessing the protected resources, if they are not who they say they are, just as if their fingerprints had been taken remotely and surreptitiously. Face recognition or finger print recognition are also the techniques used for the security of an ATM. In these techniques the related data is stored in the database

1. Modern ATM physical security concentrate on denying the use of the money inside the machine to a thief or a fraud using some fraud detection techniques.

2. The customer request a withdrawal from the machine which dispenses no money but merely prints a receipt. The customer then takes the receipt to a sales clerk and exchange it for cash.

3. An additional security measure limits the total amount of ATM withdrawal to some particular amount.

4. This aims to reduce the amount of fraud withdrawal.