Like every year, Teldat has been taking part as sponsor in the 5B digital Summit, sharing innovative connection ideas for bank ATMs servicing millions of people around the world. We have exchanged viewpoints with other companies that, just like us, are part of the ATM ecosystem that is gaining traction amongst banks.

 Automatic ATMs

Automatic ATMS have played a key role in the finance system for decades. Its widespread adoption has offered people the chance to access their bank accounts and carry out transactions 24/7. This has not only improved user experience but has allowed banks to significantly reduce their operating costs while increasing their availability and reach. Current ATMs not only offer cash but are fast becoming small bank branches where clients can perform multiple transactions at all times. They are, therefore, a critical component of the banking industry technology trends.

Monitoring and protecting ATMs

Given the relevance ATM communication lines are acquiring, monitoring and protecting them is essential to avoid possible intrusions. However, the bandwidths of these new sale points have not increased at the same pace as services, meaning new cybersecurity solutions based on exporting traffic to safe points cannot be applied to ATM networks with limited bandwidth. Despite this, there are other monitoring and securitization techniques that are fully compatible with these networks (for instance, traffic monitoring and visualization via flow analysis). This hardly increases the traffic generated at an ATM and is compatible with most routers already deployed.

Thanks to traffic flow analysis, router configurations that are not working properly (or an LTE link that has started working incorrectly) can be easily detected. From a cybersecurity point of view, it is easy to detect fraudulent connections to and from ATMs and its servers (since normal ATM transactions must be previously controlled and identified). This flow analysis technique is useful when it comes to real-time breakdowns and forensic examination, meaning records of what happened in a specific ATM transaction process (and whether this problem is spreading to nearby ATMs) can be obtained.

The monitoring solution must be capable of detecting anomalous transactions and automatically send customized alerts to investigate suspicious terminals or blocking attacks. Configuring instant alerts should also be possible (in case cybercriminals physically install malware in an ATM capable of accessing the central bank server or alarm terminal).

Another key point is that, on many occasions, communication lines are not exclusive to ATMs but are shared with the banking agency. The combination of ATM traffic and application traffic (generated by bank employees) can make the analysis much more difficult. However, the flow analysis tool allows both traffic flows to be easily and efficiently separated. It matches each traffic to its exact source and destination, and shows whether the flow comes from employees, the branch, or the ATM terminal.

Monitoring Solution for ATMs

The be.Safe XDR solution makes the most of Teldat’s knowledge and experience in the global banking sector to provide an efficient ATM service (taking into account the processing and bandwidth limitations, as well as the needs for monitoring, visibility, segmentation and securitization of these environments).  It allows banks to keep growing their portfolio, offering services through the ATM itself.