>>> Many ATMs are just running a web browser with appropriate plug-ins for
>>> running the hardware. It's much easier to add new features to 100,000
>>> machines that way than it is to go around with secure storage operated
>>> by a trained technician updating the machines. I.e., for all the reasons
>>> any other business creates an intranet instead of a desktop app.
>>
>> ...so what you're saying is that many ATMs are trivially hackable?
>
> You'd need access to the lan they're on. I will make the educated guess*
> that most banks will put the ATMs on a dedicated subnet isolated form
> the rest of the branch to prevent a virus that the mortgage officer
> caught on her laptop to propagate to the tellers' PCs and the ATMs.
>
> *Banks have been operating on the assumption that everyone is a thief
> for hundreds of years. Security is not new to them.

And yet, the above statements suggest that what is "easier" comes before 
what is more secure.

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