Stop outsourcing, withdrawal of security guards from ATMs: BEFI

Raising concern over debit card scam and massive data security breach in banks, the Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) on Thursday said outsourcing and withdrawal of security guards from ATMs are responsible for the scams.

"We have always been insisting that such handing over of surveillance jobs to outside entities amounts to compromising the secrecy, confidentiality and security of customers-related data/information which facilitates hacking, leading to a mega scam anytime," the banking union said in a media statement.

The federation expressed concern over the cyber security breach in the country, that has put 3.2 million debit card holders at grave risk.

During the last few years, most of the banks have been handing over the ATMs to private non-banking agencies, for maintenance operations like surveillance and uploading of cash.

The union said the agencies have introduced "so called e-surveillance" which has helped in the fraudulent transactions.

"This measure, in view of the recent developments, proved to be fatal since, in the absence of human surveillance, the hackers have perpetrated fraud," the federation added.

--IANS

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