Banks must login for fully encrypted ATM security steps

The State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and YES Bank are among banks which reported several of their customers’ debit cards being c o m p r o m i s e d following a malwarerelated security breach in an ATM network. The SBI has blocked nearly 600,000 debit cards so far.  “This incident is a wakeup call for the Indian banking ecosystem to pause and realise that adopting extra-layered, state-of-theart encryption security to minimise consumer financial data breach has become essential. The breach is attributable to malware which was introduced in ATM systems. The said malware has resulted in unauthorised access of data,” Pavan Duggal, one of the nation’s top cyber law experts, said. 

“It is time that magnetic-stripe cards issued by banks for ATM transactions are replaced at the earliest. While the affected banks are blocking debit cards to minimise the impact, the already ongoing replacement of mag-stripe cards with EMV chip cards will help the banks and consumers,” explained Atul Singh, Regional Director-Banking and Transport (India Subcontinent) at the digital security giant Gemalto. Malware attacks and cyber threats have affected countries like Japan and Bangladesh in the recent past.