Message from the Executive Director
As 2023 draws to a close and our thoughts start to turn towards next year, on behalf of the EAST Board I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of EAST this year. We have adapted to the world of hybrid meetings, although it was great to have one well attended ‘in-person’ only meeting in May – the 29th EAST EGAF Meeting.
The highlights from the year are as follows:
- Three hybrid Global Congress meetings for Global and National Members were held – on 8th February (hosted by the Romanian Banking Association in Bucharest), 7th June (hosted by Europol in The Hague), and 11th October (hosted by ING Bank in Amsterdam).
- The EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EGAF) also held three meetings on 18th January (hosted by Group-IB in Amsterdam), 10th May (hosted by the Mastercard DigiSec Lab in Knutsford, UK), and 20th September (hosted by the Dutch Banking Association in Amsterdam).
- The EAST Expert Group on ATM and ATS Physical Attacks (EGAP) held two meetings, both hosted by Europol in The Hague, on 23rd March and 6th September.
- The EAST Expert Group on Payment and Transaction Fraud (EPTF) held three meetings on 19th April (hosted by Tietoevry in Oslo), 29th June (virtual meeting), and 8th November (hosted by EAST in Edinburgh).
- Two European Payment Terminal Crime Reports were released on 25th April (Full Year 2022) and 17th October (Half Year 2023).
- Three Fraud Updates were released on 7th March, 11th July, and 7th November.
- Eleven Alerts were issued throughout the year (Fraud Alerts x 6, Physical Attack Alerts x 3, Payment Alerts x 2)
EAST supported CEPOL by presenting at a course focussed on combating Payment Fraud on 8th March. I represented EAST.
EAST participated in a meeting of the European Commission’s Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG) on 30th March. Thomas Von der Gathen represented EAST.
EAST supported Europol by attending two Joint Advisory Group Meetings on 5th June and 17th October. Rui Carvalho represented EAST and also at Europol’s Cybercrime Conference that followed on 18th/19th October. Rui also supported Europol’s Payment Card Fraud training from 26th to 28th June at the Spanish Police Academy in Avila. He presented a training session on behalf of EAST.
EAST EGAP worked with Europol to focus on the issue of Relay Attacks affecting both unattended payment terminals (UPTs) and ATMs. These attacks were first reported in January 2022. Several work group meetings were held through the year that resulted in the publication by EAST of a related Security Update on 23rd November. This is available to EAST Members and Law Enforcement.
Ukraine is represented at EAST by the Ukrainian Interbank Payment Systems Member Association (EMA) and on 7th December EAST supported EMA and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) in an online meeting focused on mitigating the risk of instant payments in Ukraine, based on the experiences of some European countries. The meeting was organised by Olesya Danylchenko of EMA, and EAST was represented by Rui Carvalho, Otto de Jong, Thomas Von der Gathen, and myself. Our thoughts remain with all Ukrainian colleagues and their families at this difficult time.
Best wishes to you all for a wonderful festive break, for a merry Christmas, and for a happy and prosperous New Year!
Kind regards
Lachlan
