Why do ATM trees use metal keyboards?

Did you notice that most ATMs of banks use metal numeric keypads?

According to the research and follow-up of a group of UC San Diego security researchers, the PIN that you press on the ATM keyboard to perform transactions will leave traces in the form of heat.

Only by using a digital infrared camera, bad guys can identify the keys that have been pressed.

If someone follows you while using an ATM, you can immediately be stolen a pin. Why? Because just by using a digital infrared camera, the bad guys can determine which keys have been pressed with an accuracy of up to 80%. Their research shows that even a minute after you press the pin, the infrared camera can still display the correct digits for a short period of time.

With an infrared camera it is too easy to identify the digits in the pin code, but determining the order of the numbers is not so simple. So the bad guys seem to only target ATMs with plastic keyboards - the material can store heat for IR cameras , and certainly help them distinguish the keys pressed.

Bad guys can observe the depth of color to judge the order of the numbers you have typed.

Looking at the image above, you can see that this plastic phone button can be seen after shooting by the thermal sensor camera, according to the intensity of the color can determine the order of the button, the lightest is button number 1, the deepest is the number 5 button.

Bad guys can observe the depth of color to judge the order of the numbers you have typed. So obviously if you use this keyboard material, you can easily steal passwords.

Metal keyboard with high electrical conductivity.

Instead, when using a metal keyboard, which has a high electrical conductivity, a relatively fast temperature change, it is not easy to heat the sensor to detect the order of the buttons. Since then your bank account is also secured.

In order to prevent ATMs from using only a plastic keyboard, you just need to place your hand on the entire keyboard to transfer the heat to each key after you press the PIN and complete the transactions.

But anyway, being cautious in every case is necessary to avoid unfortunate consequences.

1. ATM cutting