Kazi Zahidul Hasan :Experts on Tuesday suggested that commercial banks should set up latest technology in their debit and credit cards to prevent fraudulent transactions through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).At the same time, they said, the central bank should beef up its vigilance on the ATM booths for enforcing its compliance guidelines properly by the service provider banks to protect banks cash. There may be also some alarm system to be installed in the ATM booths which will bell ring when some unusual tempering is attempted in the booths to invite the attention of security guards or pedestrians moving around, they added. “In Bangladesh, most banks are still offering backdated IT solutions in both debit and credit cards posing potential threats of skimming of ATM memory cards by fraudsters,” M. Rashidul Hasan, Vice-President of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Service (BASIS) told the New Nation on Tuesday. He said, banks are using magnetic stripe technology with two factors authentication of the customers in their cards which has already proven to be vulnerable for cloning. “Criminal gangs across the world have already developed expertise to steal the encrypted data of card holders by installing skimming devices in side the ATM booths,” said M. Rashidul Hasan.On February 6, thefts were carried out from the accounts of several clients of Eastern Bank in Dhaka city. Later it turned out ATM thefts were made from City Bank and United Commercial Bank’s booths and their total number of cards tempered stood at over 200. “Not only Bangladesh, many countries in Europe and America are facing the same problems where crime gangs often withdraw break ATMS stealing billions of dollars,” he added.M. Rashidul Hasan, a leading IT expert of the country, further said that as the magnetic stripe technology has become more vulnerable, most countries in Europe and America have started introducing EMV security chips in debit and credit cards to prevent e-theft.According to him, EMV is the latest technology (chip card) for credit and debit cards with three factor authentication having little possibility of card fraud. “We must go for the latest technology taking into consideration the global practice and latest incidents of card fraud in Bangladesh,” he said.M. Rashidul Hasan also said Bangladesh Bank as the regulator in the banking sector should play its due role by beefing up its oversight function to protect the ATM booths. “BB in a circular earlier in 2013 issued directives to ATM service provider banks how to protect their ATM booths. But the banks are running the booths largely ignoring the BB’s directives. Although they violated the BB’s rules, any punitive measure is yet not forthcoming,” he added.He warns that if BB fails to enforce the safety compliance measures strictly, theft in ATM booths could take a serious turn. “The latest incident of theft from ATM booths duplicating credit cards is a matter of concern to clients and the IT-based banking system in general,” Russell T. Ahmed, another IT expert of the country, told The New Nation yesterday.He said, the incident could be an eye-opener for the banks which are providing e-transaction services to customers. “The banks must prepare themselves with adopting latest technology in card solution.”
