Security

Protecting your ATM portfolio from destruction

Image courtesy of iStock

April 26, 2021

There's an old adage that says, "Crime doesn't pay," but the phrase should be amended for the ATM industry to say "Crime doesn't pay but can certainly cost banks and independent ATM owners big bucks."

Every day the news reports a host of ATM machines being either vandalized, severely damaged or robbed. Criminals have used everything from ramming the machines with a truck or car to draping chains around the machine and then pulling it out of its cement base with a truck to trying to blow it up with explosives.

To understand how this issue affects the ATM industry, Oberthur Cash Protection, a provider of cash protection solutions to the ATM, retail and CiT industries, working with ATM Marketplace, conducted a global survey that included members of the ATM industry. Over 200 respondents from bank CEOs to independent ATM dealers participated and the results of the survey were shared on the webinar, "Protect your ATMs from attacks: Solutions and survey results on how to protect your ATM portfolio from destruction."

Sharing the survey results on the webinar was Business Development Director at Oberthur Cash Protection, Paul Nichols, who he wanted to develop the survey after not being able to find the data anywhere else.

Findings included that despite the fact that ATM attacks are getting greater publicity, ATM deployers actually saw ATM attacks decrease in many countries, especially during COVID-19.

Nichols also shared that the largest percentage, 45% of respondents, determined the loss in dollars when an ATM was attacked, was under $10,000. For respondents who lost between $10,001 and $51,000 due to ATM damages, the figure was 31%.

"Burglary, explosives and hook-and-chain were the top three methods for attacking ATMs," Nichols said during the webinar.

Following the webinar there was a lively question and answer session, and Eric Hauw, the director of sales and marketing for Oberthur joined Nichols to answer attendee questions.

To download this webinar, click here.