Well, if your bank's internal systems/offices already run Windows, then it is better to use the same platforms for your ATMs too - you can reuse code between the two systems, and you only need one developer team instead of two.
Also, ATM development started way before Linux was a major player and people basically only had MS-DOS or OS/2 as choices - and as banking software develops at the same speed as a glacier moves (and those ATMs tend to grow OLD), you're stuck in a lock-in effect.
For the same reason everyone writes other financial systems for Windows. It's a popular platform with rich frameworks and a large developer base.
The current versions (>= Windows 7) of Windows are pretty secure. Even the last patched up version of XP isn't awful. That said, my experience with ATMs has been that nobody does a good job of hardening ATMs.
Atm's, from what I know, are generally not connected to wifi. Most are directly wired to either DSL or to a modem making it the end users issue(aka the person who owns the property which the ATM is on).
Why wouldn't they run windows?
I don't get all this drama with ATM's and XP. They are (should be) physically secure, meaning no usb ports available, cd-rom, no public network. THey are completely locked down. Many of them are still running windows95 and they seem to work pretty well.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 15.7 ms ] threadAlso, ATM development started way before Linux was a major player and people basically only had MS-DOS or OS/2 as choices - and as banking software develops at the same speed as a glacier moves (and those ATMs tend to grow OLD), you're stuck in a lock-in effect.
The current versions (>= Windows 7) of Windows are pretty secure. Even the last patched up version of XP isn't awful. That said, my experience with ATMs has been that nobody does a good job of hardening ATMs.
What would you recommend then? Mac? Linux?