Diebold, Inc. has launched a new line of ATMs that will include biometric security components. The company’s just-announced 5500 series is going to feature finger vein readers, in addition to other security components including an anti-skimming card reader, security cameras, and encryption technology.This brings the company into step with a growing trend towards biometric security in the world of e-commerce; the iPhone’s forthcoming Apple Pay, for example, is banking on its fingerprint-scanning Touch ID technology to consumers’ security anxieties, and as more and more users make the switch to mobile commerce, traditional banking technologies such as ATMs may need to contend with consumers’ heightened expectations with respect to security and biometric security in particular.
It’s a good step forward for the company after having its image tarnished in recent years by some minor scandals: After the company’s then-CEO endorsed US President George W. Bush in 2003, Diebold went on to face insider trading accusations in 2005, and in 2007 the company again was in the spotlight as it considered divesting itself of its voting machine products following the “hanging chad” voting scandal back in 2000. (It proceeded to sell that arm of the company in 2009.) Now, with its firm commitment to its mission to “drive collaboration and purposeful innovation to get meaningful solutions to market quickly,” the company seems poised to bring automated personal finance forward with the biometric security advances now appearing in mobile commerce.
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October 14, 2014 – by Alex Perala
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