22 October 2010

Banking security

| Peewee Slasher
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I was having my Friday morning coffe at 9:00 am. my ususal choice of cafe being Michels at Lanyon shops.

Chubb security were doing their fine job of attending to the ATM’s and I noticed something unusual. The security person removed the receipt drawer, i.e, the secure slot through which you can place your transaction receipt knowing that no one else can get to it. Personally, I take mine away and dispose of it thoughtfully afterwards at home.

Mr Chubby carried the tray to the publicly available bin and emptied the contents into it. I saw a man approach him, ask a question…I’m guessing “Are those the receipts you’ve just thrown in there?” some sort of short reply from Mr Chubby and an animated response from the questioner.

The banks preach security to us through media campaigns including their statement mail outs and here’s a person tipping the entire proceeds of the receipt box into a bin.

Anyone out there clever enough to work out what to do with those receipts, they’re there, waiting for you.

Oh, St George… you have a problem.

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Peewee Slasher said :

Anyone out there clever enough to work out what to do with those receipts, they’re there, waiting for you.

Well you’re not clever enough to work out that you can’t do squat with them. “Mr Chubby” is obviously aware.

I take it a man dressed in black & white striped clothes wearing a balaclava didn’t stealthily approach and rummage through the bin?

troll-sniffer12:13 pm 23 Oct 10

Don’t see the problem. No transaction receipt I’ve ever seen gives any clues to the identity of the card, or the cardholder. Unless you’re somehow gifted with an ability to deduce a crad number from the last four digits of 16, then a receipt, secure or insecure, is of no use to you.

Sure, if the receipt blows away from a transaction you’ve just witnessed, you can tell how much the person withdrew, but that situation has nothing to do with the circumstance described in this post, which although well-intentioned, is making a mountain out of an eddy in a teacup in a dolls house.

THe bank probably told Chubb it is their responsibility to clean out the receipt collector but failed to tell them what they were actually supposed to do with it.

Grail said :

That slot is a bin, placed there to stop the piles of receipts building up around the ATM. It was never intended to be secure disposal for the receipt.

i’m pretty sure ive seen “secure bin” written on the slot.

According to NAB they’re supposed to be secure. http://www.nab.com.au/wps/wcm/connect/nab/nab/home/about_us/22/4

Anyway, i dont think they have anything personal on them. If you’re with st george it asks you if you want to print reciept or display balance or continue.

Dang! I’m actually not that bad a mathematics, I just got inspiration while writing the list.
(Ed: If you ed. comments, can you make it 1,2,3,4?) KTHXBAI!

#2 +1

I had an information security background, many lives ago. Only a prize dingbat would consider the receipt bin a secure destruction receptacle.

How do I deal with it:
#1 Don’t print a receipt if you have the option
#2 Dump them in the burn-bag at work
#2 Tear-through sensitive information and dispose of in at least two geographically isolated bins
#3 Just don’t worry about it unless you’re a squillionaire or a foreign agent.

Never been anything secure about them, other than providing a place to bin them. I don’t see why there are so many idiots out there who have the machine print out the receipt then just bin it when you can select “show balance on screen”.

Captain RAAF8:11 pm 22 Oct 10

Mathman said :

niftydog said :

Immediately eating the receipt is the only way to be sure.

No, nuking the entire site from orbit, is the only way to be sure!

grumpyrhonda7:12 pm 22 Oct 10

Grail said :

Remember folks, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

Big thumbs up on that! I take my receipts home and anything I have with personal information is shredded.

Grail said :

That slot is a bin, placed there to stop the piles of receipts building up around the ATM. It was never intended to be secure disposal for the receipt.

You will notice for example that it is mounted on the outside of the ATM and is usually made of thin sheet metal or acrylic. This bin is “secure” in that someone coming along behind you will have trouble identifying that you are the person who just withdrew $1000 in cash and have ten grand left in your account.

Remember folks, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

Google informs me that there is one Saint Mary of the Assumption.
If she is a mother then I want to know who the father is?

niftydog said :

Secure? Hardly. If you are paying attention to all the ‘preaching’ your bank is doing then you wouldn’t be disposing of your receipts in public places at all.

Immediately eating the receipt is the only way to be sure.

niftydog said :

What I want to know is why so many people print the receipt and then IMMEDIATELY throw it in the bin!?!?! Press the “display balance on screen” button you muppets!!!

I always get distracted by the money coming out. By the time I look up it’s back to the welcome screen.

Boo hoo.

Secure? Hardly. If you are paying attention to all the ‘preaching’ your bank is doing then you wouldn’t be disposing of your receipts in public places at all.

What I want to know is why so many people print the receipt and then IMMEDIATELY throw it in the bin!?!?! Press the “display balance on screen” button you muppets!!!

As for the details on the receipt: they should/must contain an ATM number, transaction number, timestamp, ATM operator fee, amount withdrawn, remaining balance.

There should not be any other information such as account number, your name, card number or financial institution name.

If any identifying details are present, or any of the necessary details are not there, complain to your financial institution.

Sadly I cannot find the reference from which I assimilated this material, but this came to me on a brochure about ATMs, telling customers about how to read the receipts. It was specifically pointing out that the only way to identify you as the person conducting the transaction is for someone else to see you holding it.

This information security and the little receipt bins are both the result of ATM users being lazy bastards who won’t even walk to the bin three metres away.

That slot is a bin, placed there to stop the piles of receipts building up around the ATM. It was never intended to be secure disposal for the receipt.

You will notice for example that it is mounted on the outside of the ATM and is usually made of thin sheet metal or acrylic. This bin is “secure” in that someone coming along behind you will have trouble identifying that you are the person who just withdrew $1000 in cash and have ten grand left in your account.

Remember folks, assumption is the mother of all fuck ups.

It’s not an unusual occurrence. I’ve seen staff from many different banks empty the receipts into public bins.

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