Is your money at risk between ATMs and banks?

Stephen Withers
Friday, 17 April 2009 10:43

Business IT - Technology

From a customer perspective, vulnerabilities in the ATM/EFTPOS system are particularly troubling.

If crooks manage to steal details of your credit card and use it to make unauthorised purchases, it's the bank's money that's gone missing, not yours.

You can dispute the charges and the worst that's likely to happen is that the account is frozen and you have the inconvenience of opening a new one.

But when there's a withdrawal from your cheque or savings account, it's your money that's gone. Getting it back can prove time-consuming, and in the meantime, what do you do about paying the mortgage or rent and other commitments? You can't put everything on a credit card.

iTWire asked the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) whether these exploits were applicable to Australian conditions. The ABA referred us to the Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA), which manages and co-ordinates the EFTPOS and ATM system.

The APCA - which represents building societies and credit unions as well as the banks - was still working on a response at the time of publication.

We also asked the National Australia Bank (NAB) about the problem. A spokesperson said "NAB has world-leading software protection on our ATMs" and added that the bank is constantly monitoring risks.