[Ramius]

I'm not disagreeing with you... perhaps we're just playing a semantic game with the meaning of "physical access". I would say that walking up to an ATM isn't access, any more than hitting a bank's web site is. Access to the box and the ability to reboot it to your own system... *that's* access.

[Southack]

"I would say that walking up to an ATM isn't access, any more than hitting a bank's web site is. Access to the box and the ability to reboot it to your own system... *that's* access."

You can steal and reboot an ATM or POS terminal from now until doomsday, but that won't let you access the secure data, simply because the secure data is protected by an architectural solution (i.e. storing critical data in a secure location while putting trivial or worthless data in the vulnerable remote locations where ATMs and POS temrinals spend their working days).

If you are depending upon physical access being denied in vulnerable locations, then something is wrong with your concept of security. For God's sake, at the very least encrypt everything on your hard drive so that first pass physical access is worthless.

Or better yet, take it to the next level and use the Net to isolate and connect vulnerable PC's to and from their critical data.