EAST was formed as the European ATM Security Team in 2004 to focus on ATM security when card skimming was a rising issue in Europe. In 2017 EAST changed its name to the European Association for Secure Transactions to reflect significant changes in the payments landscape and its remit now covers both Terminal Security and Payment Security.
EAST has set up an international network in order to help improve public/private sector cross-border cooperation in the fight against organised cross-border financial crime.
EAST National Members represent their countries, EAST Global Members represent their organisations, and active links are maintained with Europol, INTERPOL and other key Law Enforcement Agencies globally. To assist with global standardisation in the fight against financial crime EAST publishes key terminology and definitions for all types of financial crime.
The EAST Expert Group on All Terminal Fraud (EAST EGAF) was launched in 2013. It is a European specialist expert forum for discussion of all Terminal related fraud trends, fraud methodologies and counter-measures, and for the provision of guidelines and other documents for the benefit of the industry and Law Enforcement.
The EAST Expert Group on ATM and ATS Physical Attacks (EAST EGAP) was launched in 2014. It is a European specialist expert forum for discussion of physical attack trends, attack methodologies and counter-measures, threat protection, and for the provision of regularly updated lists of known counter-measures.
The EAST Expert Group on Payment and Transaction Fraud (EPTF) was launched in 2016. Its purpose is to provide a specialist task force for discussion of security issues affecting the payments industry and for the gathering, collation and dissemination of related information and statistics.
EAST produces:
- Half year and Full year European Payment Terminal Crime Reports to provide interested parties with an overview of the European ATM crime situation. (These are compiled from statistics provided by the EAST membership, as well as from other industry sources)
- Three European Fraud Updates each year, based on reports provided by National Membersat each of the three EAST meetings.
- Lists of devices and systems for the benefit of Industry stakeholders.
- EAST Fraud Alerts, Physical Attack Alerts and Payment Alerts for Global, National and Associate Members