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Comment by arrrg | Hacker News Reader

So, there are these ATMs my bank in Germany uses and they have these new translucent green protrusions (dome shaped and weirdly organic) with a lock symbol on them. They also light up when you get your card back. Do you have any idea what that is?

I assume it’s some sort of defense mechanism against skimmers, but I have no idea whether that’s actually the case. (I mean, at first sight those weird protrusions seemed like skimmers to me because they definitely look like foreign objects. But they are not.)

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Are these the things? http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/03/green-skimmers-skimming-g...

They've been popping up over the UK as well, but the first few times I saw them they looked more like skimmers than security devices. As per the article, they don't really prevent skimming anyway.

That is an interesting quote:

“It [the skimmer] will immediately disrupt those wishing to operate via Russian ATMs: A majority of the BINs [Bank Identification Numbers] of Russian banks are hardwired into the chip; they are not processed.”

I wonder whats behind that move; are russian banks more dangerous to have as an enemy? Did they pay ransom money to the developer?

Devices developed by Russian intelligence and then leaked into the market?

There was a law recently passed in Russia that criminalizes development, production and distribution of skimming devices. So the Russian guy selling those is probably trying to make it less likely that authorities will go after him.

Perhaps the maker/seller lives in Russia. Presumably Russian authorities would be more responsive to a complaint from a Russian bank than from a foreign bank.

Yeah, exactly, those. That’s quite amusing and seems more like security theater on my bank’s part than anything else.

Seen that type of ATM here in Australia as well.

Infact, this is them http://krebsonsecurity.com/2011/03/green-skimmers-skimming-g...

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