News

Wincor touts solution for ATM security after end of XP support

December 2, 2013

Currently, the majority of the world's installed ATMs and account statement printers run on Windows XP, and none of them will be supported by Microsoft after April 8, 2014. And operators who are unwilling or unable to meet the deadline will find themselves in need of a solution that will keep them PCI DSS compliant. 

Wincor Nixdorf sums up the deployer's dilemma in the following statement:

This situation exposes operators of ATMs and other self-service terminals to significantly higher levels of risk — both security risks and the legal risk of failing to comply with security standards. For example, system operators who do not meet these security standards bear liability for cases of credit card fraud at their self-service systems.

... [S]elf-service system operators who will not be able to migrate to Windows 7 by April 2014 need to take independent action now to reduce the risks associated with the end of support for Windows XP. Only suitable compensatory measures will protect their self-service systems from attacks such as data theft and cybercrime as well as malware such as viruses, worms and Trojans.

In a news release, the company said its new PC/E Terminal Security software enables banks that continue to run Windows XP on their self-service systems to operate them securely without Microsoft support.

PC/E Terminal Security was designed to harden the operating system with intrusion and access protection instruments that ensure comprehensive protection for self-service devices, even against currently unknown attack scenarios. Wincor Nixdorf said in the release that it has had the software audited by a specialized external company to confirm that it offers the greatest possible security.

"With this software, Wincor Nixdorf bridges the gap between the widely used Windows XP operating system and the PCI DSS security requirements," said Stefan Wahle, VP of software solutions at Wincor Nixdorf. "Our new PC/E Terminal Security software gives our customers time to plan and implement their transitions to Windows 7 carefully. And the use of PC/E Terminal Security pays off down the road, too, since its comprehensive security protection for ATMs remains in force even after migration to Windows 7."

Read more about software.