Data security

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney took heat from Democrats on whether he planned to take the agency's consumer complaint portal private while responding to Republican fears that its data collection activities pose a data security risk.

Acting director wants agency run by a bipartisan body, not a lone director; Fed and OCC push for relaxing the supplementary leverage ratio at the biggest banks.

Even though a denial-of-service attack on an e-commerce site is not classified as a breach because data is usually not compromised, the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report claims it is a growing menace to merchants who rely solely on their websites.

Mastercard and IBM have founded a company with a very narrow goal: to help organizations scramble their data to thwart hackers and comply with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation.

It remains to be seen whether Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony on Capitol Hill will prompt lawmakers to move forward on data privacy legislation. But it’s clear that the debate is just getting started — and that banks have a big stake.

With consumer privacy issues in the spotlight, Citibank is betting its app — as an offering from a trusted data partner — will be more appealing than those from unknown brands or companies that have less liability if security breaches occur.

The self-regulatory body says working with data aggregators increases risk of cyber fraud, unauthorized transactions and identity theft. But aggregators say other links in the information chain are more vulnerable.

AI relies on catching the malware itself at a later stage, once it begins to operate in the system, and that's not enough to combat breaches and payment systems, according to Mordechai Guri, chief science officer at Morphisec.

Brand and access to capital can suffer if companies don't take proper care of data from payments and other online activities, according to David Thomas, CEO of Evident ID.

The agency’s acting director uses a reply letter to the senator not to answer her questions but to underscore that Congress lacks the ability to compel answers to such questions.

The one thing more valuable to consumers than their bank accounts might be their internet access — and a new version of the ‘Trickbot’ trojan targets both.

Options include multilayered security solutions that incorporate verification via passive biometrics, without adding friction, by evaluating a consumer’s inherent behavior online during the transaction process, writes NuData Security's Lisa Baergen.

Employees still fall for phishing attacks, but there is technology that can remove the offending code before employees even view emails, writes Aviv Grafi, CEO of Votiro.

The central bank is taking a lead role in trying to combat the longstanding problem. A broad study by the Fed aims to measure the extent of payments fraud and to foster more collaboration in thwarting it.

Before reports of the data breach at Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks OFF 5th, and Lord & Taylor fade from the news cycle, there's one detail that should alarm merchants, card issuers and consumers — and sets a tone for future data breaches.

Are the incentives for protecting card data so lopsided that merchants feel little need to do more? Or is it wrong to ask merchants to fix the faults in a payment card ecosystem they had little hand in creating?

A new cobranded Uber debit card from Green Dot’s GoBank unit gives drivers 3% cash back if they choose PIN entry when filling their tanks at ExxonMobil stations, affirming the persistence of PINs in an increasingly digital payments environment.

The concept of privacy is evolving in the digital age in ways that demand new attention from policymakers. As stewards of considerable personal information, banks should prepare to take part in this debate.

Fintech firms likely to take a third of traditional bank revenues by 2025, Citigroup report says; Saks, Lord & Taylor say five million card accounts were accessed.

The technology behind how payments are being delivered is advancing quickly. Unfortunately, standards and systems aren’t evolving fast enough to keep up, writes Greg Cohen, president of Paya.