Analytics

Identity thieves stole information on 104,000 U.S. taxpayers from the IRS website and used the data to file fake tax returns that yielded as much as $50 million in refunds, agency Commissioner John Koskinen said.

One of the more difficult challenges of the U.S. EMV conversion is getting the word out, especially given the urgency of the October deadline the card networks set for a fraud liability shift.

IdentityMind Global has upgraded its fraud prevention and risk management software to enable real-time monitoring of e-commerce fraud and money-laundering attempts at financial institutions.

The state has moved against the Embassy Suites hotel chain after one of its hotels was breached, affecting about 17 customers.

Japan's NTT Docomo has become the first mobile network operator to join the Fast IDentity Online Alliance's board of directors.

Alibaba has started using a modified version of a QR code to fight counterfeit fraud and enable individualized marketing. And the payments potential for such an offering is huge, delivering something akin to a non-wireless version of item-level RFID.

The proposed $19 million settlement to cover financial institutions' losses from the Target data breach in 2013 has failed, and financial institutions believe public data security fears provide a strong hand in future talks.

Online payments are an unintended soft spot resulting from the EMV point of sale migration, creating an opening for security technology vendors to combat the emerging cybercrime threats.

If there was any question about the need for Congress to modernize our nation’s data-security laws, the recent settlement negotiation between Target and MasterCard should put all doubts to rest.

The Fast Identity Online Alliance has established its FIDO Certified testing program for products and services that support the alliance's security specifications.

ATMs have long been a target of fraudsters hoping to steal a large amount of card data from unsuspecting consumers, and the problem looks like it can only get worse before it gets better.

Six of the world's biggest banks will pay $5.8 billion and five of them agreed to plead guilty to charges tied to a currency-rigging probe as they seek to wind down almost half a decade of enforcement actions.

In the payments industry, the common practice is to equate mobile merchants with micro merchants, and to put them on a back burner for things like EMV upgrades.

The multi-account card world is getting crowded, especially for a product segment that is viewed as a bridge between plastic and mobile, meaning any entrant to this market has a very short window of opportunity.

So far, Washington has generally smiled on tech-driven lenders such as Lending Club and OnDeck. But many in the fast-growing industry are now bracing for closer scrutiny.

Overall, merchants are doing a reliable job of fighting back the onslaught of e-commerce fraud, but there are some places where the defenses have dramatically broken down.

More than 400,000 USAA customers, five of which are over 90 years old, have opted to use biometric traits to authenticate themselves within the bank's mobile app.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.

Square Inc. says it has received more funding for its Square Capital program, which grants loans to Square merchants based on their transaction history.

Card networks have built their legacy on transporting payments and consumer data, and over time the data itself has become far more complex.