One of the most challenging areas for security technology has to be providing effective protection for banks and their associated infrastructure, such as cash machines (ATMs), given the fact that they are constantly in the sights of ever more audacious criminal gangs.
The extreme lengths to which the criminal fraternity are prepared to go has been underlined in recent weeks with the discovery by workmen of a large 40 foot tunnel in Manchester, England - including electric lighting - which it is thought was going to be used to target a cash machine nearby, with the plan being to steal the unit by taking it away, out of sight, through the tunnel.
Unfortunately attacks on bank branches, and ATMs, bring with them the ever-real danger of physical assault for workers and customers who, unwittingly, find themselves caught up in an event. A case in point being one incident during the summer where a member of the public, who was using an ATM in Cheshire, England, spotted and removed a card skimming device only to then find himself being assaulted by the criminals who had fitted the offending item and were secreted nearby waiting to retrieve the valuable card information.
So given the above, what security measures are being taken to address the financial and physical threat and catch suspicious activity before it can impact on banking operations or public safety?
When it comes to securing cash withdrawal facilities at ATMs, card fraud and the safety of those using these facilities is being addressed by the installation of compact networked Digital Video Recorders in ATMs and associated CCTV cameras. These are able to deliver images of suspicious activity to a control centre where operators can readily monitor ATMs across a number of locations and take appropriate action. Associated with this is the ability to display views of ATMs on spot monitors inside branches so acting as a powerful visible deterrent to the criminals and providing much needed reassurance to customers.
Moving forward, an extension of this approach to ATM protection is the potential to apply intelligent video analytics methods to the CCTV images, such as object left, where the analytics capabilities are able to identify the insertion of a skimming device into the card slot of a specific machine and send an alert to a remote monitoring station who can then notify the bank and the authorities.
Another technological advance, which is likely to increase the capability of security solutions for financial institutions, is the introduction of mega pixel cameras. The key advantage here is that they can provide the image resolution and quality necessary to identify suspects - a key requirement - whilst allowing banks to replace their traditional, standalone, 35 mm wet film based cameras with a much more cost effective, flexible network capable alternative, which can be readily combined with a bank's security infrastructure. Crucially, the latest mega pixel cameras are now able to offer, seamless, deep integration with other CCTV products so ensuring that any image from any part of the CCTV system is available through a single user interface.
In the end the message to the criminal gangs and opportunist thieves, who seek to target banks, is that the security industry is determined to provide the financial sector with ever more capable networked CCTV systems to combat attacks and, crucially, allow them to obtain the evidence required to assist the authorities to prosecute the individuals involved.
