SAN JOSE, Calif.–The number of attacks on debits cards used at ATMs nationally has hit a 20-year high, according to analysis released by Fair Isaac Corp. Fair-Isaac said it found that debit card compromises at ATMs on financial institution properties leaped 174% between Jan. 1 and April 9 of this year, while attacks on “nonbank” machines leaped by 317% over the same period.
As CUToday.info has reported, driving much of that increase in crime is so-called “skimming” attacks in which criminals attach devices to the cash machines to steal account information encoded on a card's magnetic stripe. That has included much more sophisticated skimmers that are thinner and harder to detect.
The growth of EMV cards is expected to help curb the effectiveness of skimmers, but ATM manufacturer Diebold said it expects mag stripe cards to remain in the market for at least 10 years, meaning the skimming threat could last another decade.