Message from the Executive Director

Another year is drawing to a close and, on behalf of the EAST Board, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the success and continued development of EAST.

This year we celebrated our 20th Anniversary at the 6th Global Congress meeting hosted by EURO Kartensysteme GmbH (EKS) in Frankfurt, a significant milestone.  At the meeting we said goodbye to Margit Schneider of EKS who, representing Germany, has attended EAST meetings since 2007.  Germany is now represented by Sandra Koenigstein of EKS, who also joined the EAST Board during the year.

During the year we also said goodbye to two other people:

• Michelle Landers retired in April having represented HSBC, a Global Member of EAST, since 2015.  Her role has been taken on by Melanie Curran.
• In October we said goodbye to Otto de Jong, a founder member of EAST, who represented the Netherlands since the first EAST meeting in February 2004.  In May 2013 he launched the EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EGAF), which he chaired from its launch meeting right up to its 33rd Meeting on 18th September.  He has been succeeded as EGAF Chair (in a personal capacity) by Christian Beine of Diebold Nixdorf.

The highlights from the year are as follows:

• Three hybrid Global Congress meetings for Global and National Members were held – on 7th February (hosted by EKS in Frankfurt), 12th June (hosted by Europol in The Hague), and 9th October (hosted by EAST in Edinburgh).
• EAST EGAF, chaired by Otto de Jong, held three meetings – on 17th January (virtual meeting), 8th May (hosted by the Dutch Banking Association in Amsterdam), and 18th September (hosted by the US Embassy in London).
• The EAST Expert Group on ATM and ATS Physical Attacks (EGAP), chaired by Graham Mott, held two meetings – on 13th March (hosted by the ECB in Frankfurt) and on 4th September (hosted by Europol in The Hague).
• The EAST Expert Group on Payment and Transaction Fraud (EPTF), chaired by Rui Carvalho, held three meetings on 17th April (hosted by EAST in Edinburgh), 26th June (virtual meeting), and 6th November (hosted by  SIBS in Lisbon).
• Two European Payment Terminal Crime Reports were released on 16th April (Full Year 2023) and 15th October (Half Year 2024).
• Three Fraud Updates were released on 21st March, 22nd July, and 12th November.
• 16 Alerts and Updates were issued throughout the year (Fraud Alerts x 7, Payment Alerts x 4, Physical Attack Alerts x 3, Security Alerts/Updates x 2)

EAST supported Europol by attending two Joint Advisory Group Meetings on 18th April and 15th October.   Rui Carvalho represented EAST and also at Europol’s Cybercrime Conference that followed on 16th/17th October.  Rui also supported Europol’s Payment Card Fraud training from 24th to 25th June at the Spanish Police Academy in Avila.  He presented a training session on behalf of EAST.

EAST EPTF issued a Security Alert covering the rising issue of ACS attacks.  The Access Control Server (ACS) is a 3DS component that receives the authentication requests, and it is responsible for authenticating the cardholder, through a challenge or a frictionless flow.  A  work group was formed to assess the threat, which resulted in the publication of the Alert.

EAST EGAF continued to work with Europol on the emerging issue of Relay Attacks affecting both unattended payment terminals (UPTs) and ATMs.  These attacks have now been reported by 5 countries and, to date, EAST has published 7 related Fraud Alerts and two related Security Updates.

EAST participated in a meeting of the European Commission’s Payment Systems Market Expert Group (PSMEG) on 9th December.  Thomas Von der Gathen represented EAST.

On 11th December EAST EGAF supported Europol at a Strategic meeting on Terminal and Host fraud in Bucharest.  This was an EMPACT operational action led by Romania.  Christian Beine represented EAST.

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