News

UK company intros system designed to foil ATM gas attacks

The Gryphon3 intelligent vault protection system was developed to prevent criminal gangs from blowing up ATMs and making off with their contents.

October 19, 2015

The company teamed with explosion research company, Gexcon, to design and build a prototype in order to confirm that the device could protect against gas attack.U.K.-based ATM security technology provider Lockpoint has announced the launch of its Gryphon3 intelligent vault protection system.

According to a press release from the company, the new solution was designed to prevent criminal gangs from blowing up ATMs and making off with the contents.

Explosive attacks were first observed in the U.K. in 2013, according to a Lockpoint press release. Since then, the company said, ATM operators have racked up seven-figure losses in cash and damage caused by criminals who inject acetylene or other gas into cash machines and blow them up.

figure 1: unprotected ATM

Lockpoint initially developed the Gryphon range to counter the threat of ambush against cash-in-transit teams as they replenish ATMs.

The solution uses a system of interlocking "intelligent" electronic steel doors intended to make robbery unattractive because only one of four cash drawers can be open at any time. 

The design also makes it extremely difficult to break into an ATM, even if attackers manage to remove it from the premises, the company said.

Lockpoint said it began development of the Gryphon3 when it became clear that the original Gryphon could also protect an ATM against explosive attack.

In a series of monitored explosions, Gexcon filled an unprotected ATM with an optimum acetylene mix. The safe was completely destroyed and cash drawers rolled out of the ATM, making it easy for the robbers to make off with the cash (figure 1).

figure 2: Gryphon3-protected ATM

Lockpoint said that the test was twice repeated with ATMs protected by the Gryphon3, and although the safe itself was largely destroyed in each case, the cash remained secure (figure 2).

"The criminal world is always looking for new ways to deprive law-abiding citizens and businesses of their cash, and the use of explosive gases in raids on ATMs has been a particularly worrying development," said Lockpoint Chief Executive Bill Price.

"I always believed the Gryphon3 would work, but it was absolutely extraordinary to see all the work, effort and determination we had to solve this problem vindicated."

The Gryphon can be retrofitted to both hole-in-the-wall and free-standing ATMs, and gas attack protection can be retrofitted to earlier Gryphon models.