“No Need to Worry about Password Exposure”

A housewife named Lim Yeong-joo in Gwangju was worried about someone peeping at her whenever she accessed an automatic teller machine. However, her worries disappeared when she used an ATM “safety input system” adopted by Kwang Ju Bank earlier this month. Lim said, “Whenever I had to withdraw money at night, I felt uncomfortable about those around me, but now I feel very much relived.”

After a series of crimes regarding automatic teller machine password theft from looking over a customer’s shoulder, banks have started to adopt a new system that protects customer information.

Kwang Ju Bank and Jeonbuk Bank have established new systems, and Shinhan Bank plans to adopt a security measure to complement its automatic teller machines. When a customer at Kwang Ju Bank accessing its automatic teller machine types in a password, numbers randomly show up on the touch-screen numerical board from zero to nine. When the first digit of a password is pressed, numbers show up on the board at random in order for the next digit to be pressed. The place of the button to be pressed changes every time, and when one’s hand is off the screen, the number disappears.

Park Seung-bae, chairman of Shinbi Tech who developed this technology, explained, “Even if someone else peeps at a password, the numerical matrix cannot be memorized instantly, so it would be extremely rare for a password to be disclosed.”

Out of about 700 automatic teller machines, Kwang Ju Bank installed this program in about 600 machines, and it also plans to convert other devices into ones equipped with this program by early September.

Jeonbuk Bank adopted “VIS Safety Mode” in about 200 machines earlier this month. This method is compatible with the existing one where randomly generated numbers are pressed on the screen instead of the original numbers when inputting a password.

The Foreign Exchange Bank is blocking the possibility of password theft by arranging the numbers from zero to nine on the password number board, and arranging them in inverse fashion.

Up until now, banks have tried various attempts to strengthen the security of automatic machines in vain.

In 2003, the Foreign Exchange Bank even stopped using a system that made password keystrokes randomly appear on screen when a password was input because many customers incorrectly input their password.

However, the recently introduced technology enables a customer to choose the input method to increase its convenience and strengthen its effectiveness.

The financial sector predicts that once the new system receives positive feedback from customers, it will spread throughout the whole banking sector.

peacechaos@donga.com