I Can’t Sleep - Automated Teller Machines | Calm Bedtime Reading

Episode Date: April 28, 2024

Unwind with this calm bedtime reading on automated teller machines, created to ease insomnia and bring comfort to sleepless nights. In this soothing episode, Benjamin explores the history and developm...ent of ATMs, from their invention in the 20th century to their worldwide role in modern banking. His gentle, steady narration blends knowledge with relaxation—no whispers, no hypnosis, just calm, fact-filled storytelling to help quiet your mind. Whether you’re dealing with stress, anxiety, or sleeplessness, this peaceful reading invites you to press play, relax, and drift into restful sleep while learning about ATMs. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Automated Teller Machines, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Automated Teller Machine. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:03 You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.
Starting point is 00:00:57 With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled, Automated Teller Machine. An automated telemachine, ATM, is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries, or account information inquiries, at any time and without the need for direct interaction with bank staff.
Starting point is 00:01:59 ATMs are known by a variety of names, including automatic teller machines in the United States, sometimes redundantly as ATM machine. In Canada, the term automated banking machine, ABM is also used, although ATM is also very commonly used in Canada, with many Canadian organizations using ATM over ABM. In British English, the terms cash point, cash machine, and hole in the wall are most widely used. Other terms include anytime money, cash line, time machine,
Starting point is 00:02:39 cash dispenser, cash corner, or bank a mat. ATMs that are not operated by a financial institution are known as white label ATMs. Using an ATM, customers can access their bank deposit or credit accounts in order to make a variety of financial transactions. most notably cash withdrawals and balance checking, as well as transferring credit to and from mobile phones. ATMs can also be used to withdraw cash in a foreign country. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that in which the bank account is denominated, the money will be converted at the financial institution's exchange rate.
Starting point is 00:03:28 Customers are typically identified by inserting a plastic ATM card, or, some other acceptable payment card into the ATM, with authentication being by the customer entering a personal identification number, pin, which must match the pin stored in the chip on the card, if the card is so equipped, or in the issuing financial institutions database. According to the ATM Industry Association, ATMIA, as of 2015, there were close to 3.5 million ATMs installed worldwide. However, the use of ATMs is gradually declining with the increase of cashless payment systems.
Starting point is 00:04:13 The idea of out-of-hours cash distribution was first put into practice in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Sweden. In 1960, Luther Simjan invented an automated deposit machine, accepting coins, cash, and checks, although it did not have cash dispensing features. His U.S. patent was first filed on the 33rd. of June 1960 and granted on the 26th of February 1963. The rollout of this machine called Bankograph was delayed by a couple of years, due in part to Simgian's Reflectone Electronics Inc. being acquired by Universal Magic Corporation. An experimental bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York,
Starting point is 00:05:02 but removed after six months due to the lack of customer acceptance. In 1962, Adrian Ashfield invented the idea of a card system to securely identify a user and control and monitor the dispensing of goods or services. This was granted UK patent 959-713 in June 1964 and assigned to Kin's Developments Limited. A Japanese device called the Computer Loan Machine supplied cash as a three-month loan at 5% PA after inserting a credit card. The device was operational in 1966, however little is known about the device.
Starting point is 00:05:49 A cash machine was put into use by Barclay's Bank and Field in the United Kingdom on 27th of June 1967, which is recognized as the world's first ATM. This machine was inaugurated by English actor Reg Varney. This invention is credited to the engineering team led by John Shepard Barron of printing firm De LaRue, who was awarded an OBE in the 2005 New Year honors. Transactions were initiated by inserting paper checks issued by a teller or cashier, marked with Carbon 14 for machine readability and security, which in a later model were matched with a four-digit personal identification number, pin.
Starting point is 00:06:37 Shepard Barron stated, It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser but replacing chocolate with cash. The Barclays Delirou Machine called Deliru Automatic Cash System or DacS beat the Swedish saving banks and company called Meteor's Machine. A device called Bankomat by a mere 9. days, and British Westminster Bank's Smith Industries Chubb system called Chubb MD2 by a month. The only version of the Swedish machine is listed to have been operational on the 6th of May 1968,
Starting point is 00:07:26 while claiming to be the first online ATM in the world, ahead of similar claims by IBM and Lloyd's Bank in 1971, and Oki in 1970. The collaboration of a small startup called Spatech, and, Midland Bank, developed a fourth machine which was marketed after 1969 in Europe and the U.S. by the Burroughs Company. The patent for this device, G.B. 132-9964, was filed in September 1969 and granted in 1973 by John David Edwards, Leonard Perkins, John Henry Donald, Peter Lee Chapel, Sean Benjamin Newcomb, and Malcolm David Row. Both the DACS and MD2 accepted only a single-use token or voucher, which was retained by the machine, while the Spatech worked with a card with a magnetic stripe at the back.
Starting point is 00:08:26 They used principles including carbon-14 and low-coercivity magnetism in order to make fraud more difficult. The idea of a pin stored on the card was developed by a group of engineers working at Smith's Group on the Chubb MD2 in 1965, and which has been credited to James Goodfellow, patent G.B. 119-7183, filed on the 2nd of May, 1966 with Anthony Davies. The essence of this system was that it enabled the verification of the customer with the debited account without human intervention. This patent is also the earliest instance of a complete currency dispenser system in the patent record. This patent was filed on the 5th of March 1968 in the U.S. 354-3904 and granted on the 1st of December 1970. It had a profound influence
Starting point is 00:09:25 on the industry as a whole. Not only did future entrance into the cash dispenser markets such as NCR Corporation and IBM, licensed Goodfellow's PIN system. But a number of later patents referenced this patent as prior art device. Devices designed by British, i.e. Chubb, Della Rue, and Swedish, i.e. S. Siam Meteor, manufacturers quickly spread out. For example, given its link with Barclays, Bank of Scotland deployed a DACS in 1968 under the Scott Cash brand. Customers were given personal code numbers to activate the machines, similar to the modern pin. They were also supplied with the 10-pound vouchers. These were fed into the machine and the corresponding amount debited from the customer's account.
Starting point is 00:10:20 A Chubb-made ATM appeared in Sydney in 1969. This was the first ATM installed in Australia. The machine only dispends $25 at a time, and the bank card had seen. would be mailed to the user after the bank had processed the withdrawal. Acia Medellier's Bancomat was the first ATM installed in Spain on the 9th of January 1969 in Central Madrid and Bonesto. This device dispensed 1,000 peseta bills, 1 to 5 max. Each user had to introduce a security personal key
Starting point is 00:10:56 using a combination of the 10 numeric buttons. In March of the same year, an ad with the instructions to use the Bancomat was published in the same newspaper. In West Germany, the first ATM was installed in the 50,000 People University City of Tübingen on May 27, 1968, by Kreis Parkas of Tubingen. It was built by AILEN-based safe builder, Ulster Tag, AG, in cooperation with A.E.G. Telefunken. Each of the 1,000 selected users were given a double-bit key to open the safe with Gelda Secawba written on it,
Starting point is 00:11:37 a plastic identification card, and 10 punched cards. One punch card functioned as a withdrawal slip for a 100 DM bill. The maximum limit for daily use was 400 DM. After looking firsthand at the experiences in Europe, in 1968, the ATM was pioneered in the U.S. by Donald Wedzell, who was a department head at a company called Docuitel. Docuettell was a subsidiary of Recognition Equipment, Inc. of Dallas, Texas, which was producing optical scanning equipment
Starting point is 00:12:13 and had instructed Docuettell to explore automated baggage handling and automated gasoline pumps. On the 2nd of September 1969, Chemical Bank installed a prototype ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Center, New York. The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card. A Chemical Bank advertisement boasted,
Starting point is 00:12:42 On September 2nd, our bank will open at 9 and never close again. Chemicals ATM initially known as Docu-Teller was designed by Donald Wetzler and his company Docu-Tel. Chemical executives were initially hesitant about, the electronic banking transition, given the high cost of the early machines. Additionally, executives were concerned that customers would resist having machines handling their money. In 1955, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History recognized Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM. To show confidence in
Starting point is 00:13:23 Docutel, Chemical installed the first four production machines in a marketing test approved they worked reliably. Customers would use them and even pay a fee for usage. Based on this, banks around the country began to experiment with ATM installations. By 1974, Docutel had acquired 70% of the U.S. market, but as a result of the early 1970s worldwide recession and its reliance on a single product line, Docu tell lost its independence and was forced to merge with the U.S.
Starting point is 00:13:58 subsidiary of Olivetti. In 1973, Wetzel was granted U.S. Patent Number 3,761,682 archived 5th of September 2017 at the Wayback Machine. The application had been filed in October 1971. However, the U.S. patent record cites at least three previous applications from Docutel, all relevant to the development of the ATM, and where Wetzel does not figure, namely, U.S. Patent No. 3662-343, archived 5th of September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Patent number 3651976, archived 5th of September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, and U.S. patent number 368-569, archived 5th of September 2017 at the Wayback Machine, and U.S. patent number 368-569, archived 5th of September 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
Starting point is 00:14:57 These patents are all credited to Kenneth S. Goldstein, M. R. Carecki, T.R. Barnes, G.R. Chastian and John D. White. In April 1971, Buzacom began to manufacture ATMs based on the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Buzicom manufactured these microprocessor-based automated teller machines for several buyers, with NCR Corporation as the main customer. Mohamed Atala invented the first hardware security module, HSM, dubbed the Atala box, a security system which encrypted pin and ATM messages,
Starting point is 00:15:41 and protected offline devices with an unguessable pin-generated key. In March 1972, Atala filed U.S. Paton 3338-091 for his PIN verification system, which included an encoded card reader and described a system that utilized encryption techniques to assure telephone links security while entering personal ID information that was transmitted to a remote location for verification. He founded Atala Corporation, now Tomico Atala, in 1972, and commercially launched the Atala box in 1973. The product was released as the Identity. It was a card reader and customer identification system,
Starting point is 00:16:31 providing a terminal with plastic card and pin capabilities. The Identity Key system consisted of a card reader console two customer pin pads, intelligent controller, and built-in electronic interface package. A device consisted of two keypads, one for the customer and one for the teller. It allowed the customer to type in a security code, which is transformed by the device using a microprocessor into another code for the teller. During the transaction, the customer's account number was read by the card reader. This process replaced manual and entry and avoided possible keystroke errors.
Starting point is 00:17:12 It allowed users to replace traditional customer verification methods, such as signature verification and test questions with a secure PIN system. The success of the Atala box led to the wide adoption of hardware security modules in ATMs. Its pin verification process was similar to the later IBM 3624. Atala's HSM products protect 250,000, million card transactions every day as of 2013 and secure the majority of the world's ATM transactions as of 2014. The IBM 2984 was a modern ATM and came into use at Lloyd's Bank, High Street, Brentwood, Essex, the UK, in December 1972. The IBM 2984 was designed at the request
Starting point is 00:18:05 of Lloyd's Bank. The 2984 cash issuing terminal was a true AT&M. similar in function to today's machines and named Cashpoint by Lloyd's Bank. Cashpoint is still a registered trademark of Lloyd's Banking group in the UK, but is often used as a generic trademark to refer to ATMs of all UK banks. All were online and issued a variable amount which was immediately deducted from the account. A small number of 2984s were supplied to a U.S. bank. A couple of well-known historical models of ATMs include the Atala Box, IBM 3614, IBM 3624, and 473X series, DiBold 10X, and Tabs 9,000 series, NCR 1780, and earlier NCR 770 series.
Starting point is 00:19:02 The first switching system to enable shared automated teller machines between banks went into production operation on the 3rd of February 1979 in Denver, Colorado, in an effort by Colorado National Bank of Denver and Cranesley and Company of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In 2012, a new ATM at Royal Bank of Scotland allowed customers to withdraw cash up to 130 pounds without a card by inputting a six-digit code requested through their smartphones. ATMs can be placed at any location, but are most often placed near or inside banks, shopping centers, airports, railway stations, metro stations, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, and other locations.
Starting point is 00:19:55 ATMs are also found on cruise ships and on some U.S. Navy ships, where sailors can draw out their pay. ATMs may be on and off-premises. On-premises ATMs are typically more advanced, multifunction machines that complement a bank branches capabilities, and are thus more expensive. Off-premises machines are deployed by financial institutions where there is a simple need for cash, so they're generally cheaper single-function devices. Independent ATM deployers, unaffiliated with banks, install and maintain white-label ATMs. In the U.S., Canada, and some Gulf countries, banks may have drive-through lanes providing access to ATMs using an automobile.
Starting point is 00:20:48 In recent times, countries like India and some countries in Africa are installing solar-powered ATMs in rural areas. The world's highest ATM is located at the Kundrab Pass in Pakistan, installed at an elevation of 4,693 meters by the National Bank of Pakistan. It is designed to work in temperatures as low as negative 40 degrees Celsius. Most ATMs are connected to interbank networks, enabling people to withdraw and deposit money from machines, not belonging to the bank where they have their accounts. or in the countries where their accounts are held, enabling cash withdrawals and local currency.
Starting point is 00:21:34 Some examples of interbank networks include NYCE, Pulse, Plus, Cirrus, AFFN, Interac, InterSwitch, Star, Link, Megalink, and Banknet. ATMs rely on the authorization of a financial transaction by the card issuer, or other, their authorizing institution on a communications network. This is often performed through an ISO-8583 messaging system. Many banks charge ATM usage fees. In some cases, these fees are charged totally to users who are not customers of the bank that operates the ATM. In other cases, they apply to all users.
Starting point is 00:22:23 In order to allow a more diverse range of devices to attach to their networks, Some interbank networks have passed rules expanding the definition of an ATM to be a terminal that either has the vault within its footprint or utilizes the vault or cash drawer within the merchant establishment which allows for the use of a script cash dispenser. ATMs typically connect directly to their host or ATM controller on either ADSL or dial-up modem over a telephone line or directly on a leased line.
Starting point is 00:22:59 Leased lines are preferable to plain old telephone service POTS lines because they require less time to establish a connection. Less trafficked machines will usually rely on a dial-up modem on a POTS line rather than using a leased line, since a leased line may be comparatively more expensive to operate compared to a POTS line. That dilemma may be solved as high-sperson, internet VPN connections become more ubiquitous. Common lower-level layer communication protocols
Starting point is 00:23:33 used by ATMs to communicate bank-to-bank include SNA over SDLC, a multi-drop protocol over async, x.25, and TCPIP over Ethernet. In addition to methods employed for transaction security and secrecy, all communications traffic between the ATM and the transaction processor may also be encrypted using methods such as SSL. There are no hard international or government compiled numbers totaling the complete number of ATMs in use worldwide. Estimates as of 2015 developed by ATM IAA placed the number of ATMs in use at 3 million units, or approximately one ATM per 3,000 people in the world.
Starting point is 00:24:25 world. To simplify the analysis of ATM usage around the world, financial institutions generally divide the world into seven regions, based on the penetration rates, usage statistics, and features deployed. Four regions, USA, Canada, Europe, and Japan, have high numbers of ATMs per million people. Despite the large number of ATMs, there is additional demand for machines in the Asia-Pacific area, as well as in Latin America. Macau may have the highest density of ATMs at 254 ATMs per 100,000 adults. With the uptake of cashless payment solutions in the late 2010s, ATM numbers and usage started to decline. This happened first in developed countries at a time when ATM numbers were
Starting point is 00:25:19 still increasing in Asia and Africa. As of 2021, there had been a lot of 2021, there had been a lot of been a global decline in the number of ATMs in use, with the average dropping to 39 per 100,000 adults from a peak of 41 per 100,000 adults in 2020. An ATM is typically made up of the following devices, CPU, to control the user interface and transaction devices, magnetic or chip card reader, who identify the customer, a pinpad for accepting and encrypting personal identification number EPP4, similar in layout to a touch tone or calculator keypad, manufactured as part of a secure enclosure. Secure crypto processor, generally within a secure enclosure. Display, used by the customer for performing the transaction.
Starting point is 00:26:18 Function key buttons, usually close to the display or a touchscreen, used to select the various aspects of the transaction. Record printer. To provide the customer with a record of the transaction. Vault. To store the parts of the machinery requiring restricted access. Housing. Or aesthetics. And to attach signage to sensors and indicators. Due to heavier computing demands and the falling price of personal computer-like architectures, ATMs have moved away from customer hardware architectures using microcontrollers or application-specific integrated circuits, and have adopted the hardware architecture of a personal computer, such as USB connections for peripherals, Ethernet and IP communications,
Starting point is 00:27:10 and use personal computer operating systems. Business owners often lease ATMs from service providers. However, based on the economies of scale, the price of equipment has dropped to the point where many business owners simply paying for ATMs using a credit card. New ADA voice and text-to-speech guidelines imposed in 2010, but required by March 2012, have forced many ATM owners to either upgrade non-compliant machines or dispose them if they are not upgradable and purchase new compliant equipment.
Starting point is 00:27:48 This has created an avenue for hackers and thieves to obtain ATM hardware at junkyards from improperly disposed decommissioned machines. The vault of an ATM is within the footprint of the device itself and is where items of value are kept. Script cash dispensers, which print a receipt or script instead of cash, do not incorporate a vault. Mechanisms found inside the vault may include dispensing mechanism to provide cash or other items of value,
Starting point is 00:28:21 deposit mechanism including a check processing, module and bulk note acceptor to allow the customer to make deposits. Security sensors, magnetic thermal seismic gas. Locks. To control access to the contents of the vault. Journaling systems. Many are electronic, a sealed flash memory device based on in-house standards, or a solid state device, an actual printer, which accrues all records of activity,
Starting point is 00:28:51 including access time stamps, number of notes dispensed, etc. This is considered sensitive data and is secured in similar fashion to the cache as it is a similar liability. ATM vaults are supplied by manufacturers in several grades. Factors influencing vault grade selection include cost, weight, regulatory requirements, ATM type, operator risk avoidance practices, and internal volume requirements. Industry standard vault configurations include underwriters' laboratories,
Starting point is 00:29:29 UL-291, business hours, and level 1 safes, R-A-L-T-L-30 derivatives, N-C-E-N-1143-1-1-C-C-E-N-4. ATM manufacturers recommend that a vault be attached to the floor to prevent theft. though there is a record of a theft conducted by tunneling into an ATM floor. With the migration to commodity personal computer hardware, standard commercial off-the-shelf operating systems and programming environments can be used inside of ATMs. Typical platforms previously used in ATM development include RMX or OS2.
Starting point is 00:30:18 Today, the vast majority of ATMs worldwide use Microsoft Windows. In early 2014, 95% of ATMs were running Windows XP. A small number of deployments may still be running older versions of the Windows OS, such as Windows NT, Windows CE, or Windows 2000, even though Microsoft still supports only Windows 10 and Windows 11. There is a computer industry security view that general public desktop operating systems have greater risks as operating systems for cash.
Starting point is 00:30:52 dispensing machines than other types of operating systems like secure real-time operating systems RTOS. Risks Digest has many articles about ATM operating system vulnerabilities. Linux is also finding some reception in the ATM marketplace. An example of this is Ban Rassol, the largest bank in the south of Brazil, which has replaced the MS-DOS operating systems in its ATM's with Linux. Banco de Brazil is also migrating ATMs to Linux. Indian-based vortex engineering is manufacturing ATMs that operate only with Linux.
Starting point is 00:31:36 Common application layer transaction protocols, such as DiBold 91X, 911, or 912, and NCR, NDC, or NDC+, provide emulation of older generations of hardware on newer platforms, with incremental extensions made over time to address new capabilities. Although companies like NCR continuously improve these protocols, issuing newer versions, e.g. NCR's AANDC V3.X.Y, where X.Y are sub-versions. Most major ATM manufacturers provide software packages that implement these protocols. Newer protocols such as IFX have yet to find wide acceptance by transaction processors. With the move to a more standardized software base, financial institutions have been increasingly
Starting point is 00:32:35 interested in the ability to pick and choose the application programs that drive their equipment. WOSA XFS, now known as C-E-N-X-F-S, or simply XFS, provides a common API for accessing and manipulating the various devices of an ATM. JXFS is a Java implementation of the CENXFS API. While the perceived benefit of XFS is similar to the Java's right once-run anywhere mantra, often different ATM hardware vendors have different interpretations of the XFS standard. The result of these differences in interpretation means that ATM applications typically use a middleware to even out the differences among various platforms.
Starting point is 00:33:28 With the onset of Windows operating systems and XFS on ATMs, the software applications have the ability to become more intelligent. This is created a new breed of ATM applications, commonly referred to as programmable applications. These types of applications allow for an entirely new host of applications, in which the ATM terminal can do more than only communicate with the ATM switch. It is now empowered and connected to other content servers and video banking systems. Notable ATM software that operates on XFS platforms include Triton Prism, DiBold Agilis, Empower,
Starting point is 00:34:11 NCR APTRA Edge, Absolute Systems Absolute Interact, KAL-Calagnide software platform, Phoenix Interactive, Vista ATM, Wyncore, Nixdorf, Pro Topos, Euronet, EFTs, and InterTag, EnterATM. With the move of ATMs to industry standard computing environments, concern has risen about the integrity of the ATMs software stack.

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