Bangalore attack: Why not use tech to make ATMs safe?

The horrific attack on a woman bank officer at an ATM in Bangalore is only the latest in a string on such incidents that took place at such kiosks.

Last month, a security guard at an ATM of IDBI Bank was murdered in an attemptedburglary. In May, Rs 15 lakh was stolen from an SBI ATM.

Clearly, ATMs have become the most dependable spots for making financial transactions. Banks are also increasing number of their ATMs. But what’s the use if they are turning out to be unsafe spots?

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The RBI’s norms on providing security at an ATM areambiguous. So, in times like these tips on how to deal with ATM attacks start floating around. A similar email, which was dumped as untrue a few years back, seems to be resurfacing and making the rounds again.

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It promises to give you a trick to notify the police, in case you get mugged at an ATM, especially at nights. It says if you punch your debit card PIN in reverse order, the ATM will signal the nearest police station and within a few minutes, help will be on its way.

The truth in reality no ATMs in India offer such a service.

To know that this is not true, you just need a little bit of common sense. There would be thousands of people with PIN that reads the same in reverse, for instance 5555.

In fact, there have been such proposals in other countries. But no such system is known to be in place yet.

What we strongly suggest is that banks or ATM manufacturers could seriously look into this concept of an alternate emergency ATM PIN system. We don’t think a reverse PIN punching is a good idea though. A number of home security systems in the West have duress codes, which trigger alarms to security or police.

Posting a security guard at ATMs will not solve the problem once and for all, but there could be some way technology can help. If you have any suggestion on this, do let us know.