ATMs to run Windows

[krissel]

Article

QUOTE

While the infamous blue screen of death may haunt many desktop computer users, the banking industry and security experts dismiss the fear that someone will break into Windows-powered ATMs to empty bank accounts. For one, the ATMs will use a stripped-down version of Windows NT that is quite different from the software on desktop computers.
"What Microsoft actually sells to the banks for ATM use is a cut-down version of Windows that doesn't contain things like Web servers," said Ross Anderson, a researcher in Cambridge, England, and author of Security Engineering. "They have tried to cut out the unnecessary rubbish that clutters up the typical PC.

Excuse me but wasn't one of the arguments by MS to defend Windows inclusive software in the Justice Dept case the fact that all of it was integral to making Windows work? That you couldn't take out the browser tools? That all those monopolistic dumping of applications into the system was necessary?

         

Today's ATMs run IBM's OS/2 which would be replaced by the Windows Mini (my term) yet you get brilliant comments like this one:

QUOTE

the reason bank robbers still tend not to focus on ATMs to do their dirty work is that ATMs have almost never fallen prey to malicious hacking.

HELLO, that is because they are NOT running Windows NOW, you....

           

[kps]

I'm sitting here thinking...okay, an ATM is not connected to the internet, it may not even be using TCP/IP as the internal protocol, so me and my money are safe even if they run on Windows right....nah, I'm putting all my money under my mattress.

[Gary S]

My wife gives me a new ATM card each year. I put it in my wallet. I've never used it. She does.  

I just don't trust the things, but now that they will be running Windows.....well. My money's
been under my mattress for a long time.

My wallet......moths fly out of it. Now my check book, that's a different matter.

What a mad, mad world.
 

[Paddy]

Oh my. I finally got my Mom to actually use an ATM a few years ago - if I tell her they'll now be running Windoze she'll probably go back to waiting in line at the bank! My Dad has always stubbornly refused to use them - he says he likes to go and talk to the tellers!

So, what does online banking run on?  

[Spartacus]

The typical Windows-based ATM scenario:

Just when you are about to withdraw thousands of dollars the ATM hangs with a blue screen. The money doesn't come out of the machine, but the withdrawal has - of course - been booked.

[Epaminondas]

<< So, what does online banking run on? >>

Whatever OSs and protocols are used, online banking runs on the Internet.

Which means that online banking is as secure as the least secure point between your computer, the internet, and the bank's computers.  By whichever pathway the information travels.

Security is sacrificed in the name of convenience.

But I am not concerned.

I mean -

What could happen?


ATMs are relatively secure, but there are lapses.  For example, robberies still occur:  I know one gentleman - an attorney in his 40s, 5' 11", 170 pounds - who gracefully accepted a punch in the face (broke his nose) rather than punch in his ATM number during a robbery.  That ATM number would have allowed access to every account he had in that bank - I suspect that the ATM machine would have run dry before completely draining his funds.  He was in Budapest at the time - wearing a nice suit and a pair of Aldens.  

Always dress to fit in when travelling overseas.  Slightly underdressing - but not slumming - makes you a less interesting target.

Occasionally one hears of a murder - I recall one as far back as 1984 - in similar circumstances.


Checkbooks are most secure: the robber who demands a check is not long for freedom.  But I have had one incident even with checks - adolescents who stole a few checks from my checkbook and cashed them.  A few hundred bucks - seemed like a lot to them at the time, I suppose. Caught, with parental involvement and full restitution.  Not expelled, but I understand that the headmaster taught them a powerful lesson in life.  Ouch.

I learned one, as well.


You pays your money and you takes your choice.


Regards,

Epaminondas

[krissel]

What we feared for the future has already happened.  

virus attacks Windows ATM

[Paddy]

They're using Windoze because they wanted the graphics capabilities?



The mind truly boggles.

Notice to banks:

I, as a regular ATM user have ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST IN PRETTY GRAPHICS ON YOUR *&^% ATM! I don't want Flash, I don't want a million options in a confusing GUI...I want simple buttons with options like "deposit", "withdraw cash" etc.

These people have completely lost it. Form follows function. Remember? Obviously not.

   

Terrific...Bank of America recently bought Fleet. I may be bank-shopping soon.  

[jwboyd]

Is this the same Fleet that makes and markets enema kits?

I agree, the mind truly boggles.

One's imagination could run wild with this!