OREANDA-NEWS. March 02, 2011. The Estonian Security Association has issued its ‘2010 Security Solution of the Year’ award to SEB Bank, which installed antiskimmers in all of its cash machines during the year in order to thwart attempts to copy bankcard data. The devices were supplied and installed by AS Hansab, reported the press-centre of SEB Bank.

“Antiskimmers are the most effective weapon we can wield against people planning card fraud, and working with Hansab we’ve made SEB’s ATMs a whole lot safer,” said Tammo Otsasoo, director of SEB’s e-Technology Division. “Monitoring transactions and raising awareness among clients are important in fighting skimming as well, but the use of technology designed specifically to stop it is even more effective.”

Janno Kallikorm, managing director of AS Hansab, confirmed that the solution adopted by SEB provides effective defence against skimming. “The antiskimmers we installed are a device you fit to cash machines to stop bank cards being copied,” he explained. “They produce a strong electromagnetic field which ensures that any card-reading devices won’t work. They also check for anything in the ATMs that shouldn’t be there, and if they find something, they alert those responsible for the machines’ security.”

‘Skimming’ is the copying of data from the magnetic strips of bank cards in ATMs and payment terminals. The objective is to produce realistic new cards using the stolen card data and to make transactions using them from the cardholder’s account without their knowledge. Over 10,000 cases of skimming have been registered in Europe every year over the last three years, with losses exceeding 200 million euros annually. More than 10 cases of skimming have been uncovered in Estonia since 2008. It is thought that the criminals behind them may have obtained data on up to 5000 cards in the process.