Major banks are equipping their ATMs with jitter technology

Major banks are equipping their ATMs with advanced security features in a bid to counter skimming devices. Allen Mahadeo, general manager for the self-service channel at Absa Group, said they were preventing financial fraud by implementing new anti-card skimming technology on its ATMs called "Jitter" software. Jitter causes a vibration to the ATM card reader which sends a disrupted signal to any illegal skimming device. This prevents copying from banking cards and makes card skimming impossible. Absa will install the software at all fully branded Absa ATMs and self-service kiosks. This network of 4 357 ATMs excluded third-party, Absa-supported ATMs.Card skimming occurs when fraudsters attach reading devices known as "skimmers" to an ATM card entry to read the magnetic strip data from inserted cards.
"By peering over the victim's shoulder, they are able to obtain the pin number keyed in. With the information the syndicates create a duplicate card and empty the victim's account," he said.Leon Barnard, director for secured lending and credit cards at Standard Bank, said according to SA Banking Risk Intelligence Centre card skimming had increased by 42 percent from 2006 to 2007.
Barnard said all their newer ATMs were equipped with jitter technology.