News

ATM explosive attacks booming in Europe

October 17, 2016

The European ATM Security Team has reported an 80 percent increase year over year in the incidence of ATM explosive attacks through the first half of 2016.

According to the newly released EAST crime report for the first half of this year, member nations experienced 492 explosive attacks, compared with 273 during the same period in 2015. Explosive gas was used in 382 attacks; the remaining 110 attacks involved the use of solid explosives.

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"This rise in explosive attacks is of great concern to the industry in Europe as such attacks create a significant amount of collateral damage to equipment and buildings as well as a risk to life," said EAST Executive Director Lachlan Gunn. "The EAST Expert Group on Physical Attacks is working to analyze the attacks and to share intelligence … across the industry and law enforcement that can help to mitigate the threat."

Overall, ATM-related physical attacks rose from 1,232 in in the first half of 2015 to 1,604 during the same period in 2016 — a 30 percent increase. Losses due to this type of attack rose 3 percent from 26.3 million euros to 27 million euros ($28.9 million to $29.6 million) between 2015 and 2016.

The average cash loss for a ram raid or burglary attack is estimated at 17,327 euros ($19,055); the average cash loss per explosive attack is 16,631 euros ($18,289) and the average cash loss for a robbery is 20,017 euros ($22,013).

EAST said that the figures do not take into account collateral damage to equipment or buildings, which can be significant, often exceeding the value of the cash lost in a successful attack.

EAST also reported a 28 percent year-over-year increase in ATM-related fraud attacks, from 8,421 to 10,820. This was mainly driven by a 281 percent increase in transaction reversal fraud (from 1,270 to 4,840 incidents).

The downward trend for card skimming continued with 1,573 card-skimming incidents reported, compared with 1,986 — a decrease of 21 percent year over year. 

Losses due to ATM-related fraud attacks were up 12 percent year over year — from 156 million euros to 174 million euros ($171.5 million to $191.3 million).

This rise was largely driven by an 8 percent rise in international skimming losses — from 131 million euros to 142 million euros ($144 million to $156 million).

The majority of these losses came from the Asia-Pacific region (particularly Indonesia) and the United States. Domestic skimming losses rose 24 percent over the period.

The number of ATM logical attacks reported also continued to rise. During the first half of the year 28 incidents were reported (all were jackpotting attacks), up from just 5 during the same period in 2015. Related losses were 400,000 euros ($440,000). 

The full report, with breakdowns for each crime category, is available to EAST members and subscribers on the EAST website.