GMV collaboration with Europol in its ATM cyberattack guide

Since 2013 the rate of ATM cyberattacks has soared, causing considerable economic damage to the financial industry and cramping its development. Society is now aware of this growing threat, which is becoming a worldwide problem. In many cases, however, logical attacks of this type could have been forestalled by means of proper countermeasures.

The European Police Office (Europol), a law enforcement agency to combat organized crime, acknowledges the seriousness of the threat posed by these cyberattacks and has drawn up an awareness-raising guide called “Guidance and Recommendations regarding Logical attacks on ATMs”. To create this guide and confront this problem Europol has cooperated closely with the European ATM Security Team (EAST), a group of which GMV is a member.

The guide draws on the knowledge, experience and consultancy of the cybersecurity experts of GMV and the other EAST members, establishing a series of countermeasures and a set of indicators to flag any cyberattacks. The guide is made up by three chapters, the first describing the modus operandi of the attacks (offline & online), the second explaining how to mitigate ATM cyberattack risk and install lines of defense, and the last how to identify and respond to these cyberattacks. The document will also be regularly updated as cyberattacks evolve to make sure it keeps pace with events.

GMV has been providing companies and institutions with technological cybersecurity solutions and services since 1993, building up a wealth of knowledge and experience along the way and developing inhouse products like checker ATM Security. Checker has now become the market-leading ATM security product, protecting nearly 90,000 ATMs in over 15 countries around the world. Major finance and insurance companies therefore turn to GMV to ensure such a critical aspect as the cybersecurity of their systems and information networks.