Data security

Human error opens the door for most cybersecurity incidents. mBank in Poland, U.S. Bank and Bank of the West are working to make consumers more aware of the dangers of bad online habits.

Human error opens the door for most cybersecurity incidents. mBank in Poland, U.S. Bank and Bank of the West are working to make consumers more aware of the dangers of bad online habits.

A cybersecurity assessment tool designed to help bankers bolster their defenses against hackers and other cybercriminals is continuing to sow confusion among bankers, with some arguing it is effectively imposing tougher standards on the industry.

It’s too soon to connect the U.S. EMV migration to a statistical spike in e-commerce crime, but fraudsters already could be reacting to the growth in new chip cards and fast consumer credit approvals by turning to new account fraud, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.

U.S. merchants are still reluctant to embrace 3D Secure technology to protect card-not-present transactions, even though it has vastly improved from the initial tedious version that irritated consumers more than a decade ago.

Super Bowl attendees are predicted to spend an average of $82.19 on food, decor, team apparel and more, up from $77.88 last year. Total spending for Super Bowl 50 is expected to top a whopping $15.5 billion.

For many e-commerce merchants, the migration to EMV-chip card security at the point of sale — and the expected shift of fraud to the Web — is akin to a message in a bottle that hasn't washed ashore. Too many simply don't know about it.

A Federal Reserve task force has issued criteria for its faster payments initiative, part of a long journey to build a framework to securely and efficiently accommodate the near real-time processing for digital commerce.

At the four-month mark after the U.S. EMV liability shift went into effect, it's still a waiting game; larger issuers and merchants tend to be on top of the chip-card situation and many smaller ones are not, but experts say it's too early to draw conclusions.

Forced to find effective ways to authenticate customers, companies are evaluating physical biometrics for web passwords. But in the mad rush for alternatives to fight account takeover, could we be making the problem worse?

HSBC said a cyber attack temporarily shut down its Internet banking on Friday, the second time the bank's online services have been disrupted in the U.K. this month.

The potential for more convergence between financial products and physical products raises a whole host of data and privacy issues that banks must deal with proactively.

Many people in the payments industry believe stolen payment card industry data will diminish in its black market value as EMV approaches ubiquity across U.S. retailers. That's not the case.

Bank of America announced Thursday that it customers can now suspend their debit cards temporarily; it is the first of several new features the bank has planned for 2016 after it tripled its digital banking budget.

Wendy’s Co., the third-biggest U.S. burger chain, is investigating reports of unusual activity with payment cards used at some of its 5,700 domestic locations.

Retailers often worry that their customers won't return after a breach, but as logical as this expectation is, it may be far from the truth.

CPI Card Group in Littleton, Colo., has joined the FIDO Alliance, a consortium of players in the payments security industry that works on improving authentication.

Subtly altered versions of popular apps are appearing more often on smartphones. These rogue apps, often available for free, can steal mobile banking passwords or redirect text messages containing passcodes.

For years, the financial services industry has relied on tactics such as education campaigns, sales pitches and financial penalties to get merchants to upgrade their technology. Ironically, the bad security that led to Target's 2013 data breach may have been the strongest way to deliver this message.

Fiserv in Brookfield, Wis., has agreed to buy the community financial services business of ACI Worldwide for $200 million in cash.