Data security

Bankers are increasingly concerned that an optional cybersecurity assessment tool released by regulators this summer could soon become mandatory.

As mobility has become embedded in the world’s cultures, issuers are feeling the heat to create their own mobile apps, but in an era of non-top data breaches and increasing identity theft, security fears abound.

MasterCard's Craig Vosburg is trying to improve the quality of life in cities around the world.

Some 75% of chief information officers plan to increase spending on security technology next year, with many anticipating jumps in security budgets of 20% or more.

When Netflix announced that its new U.S. subscriber count had declined 10.2% year-over-year, it blamed the "ongoing transition to chip-based credit and debit cards." And the video-streaming company may not be the only victim of this phenomenon.

The EMV standards will change card security. But what may have more impact on the bottom line is churn.

FIDO, the payments security consortium dedicated to improving authentication, has added American Express to the alliance and to its board of directors, with existing members Infineon and VASCO also joining the board.

Payment technology that comes with the EMV stamp of approval already in place may get a boost as a result of the bottleneck newer systems face in getting certified.

New York state's banking regulator reached an agreement with Société Générale to retain records from an online messaging service and issued guidance for other banks in its jurisdiction that plan to use the messaging service.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has walked back a Public Service Announcement that urged consumers and merchants to use a PIN for EMV-chip card transactions. The new statement, posted Oct. 13 on the Internet Crime Complaint Center, clarified the use of EMV security.

IDology, an Atlanta provider of fraud-prevention and identity verification, has made an equity investment in the mobile identity authentication provider Payfone.

Merchants that sell digital goods each spend an average of $10.1 million a year on fraud-related costs — and many expect fraud and chargeback costs to rise in the coming months in the wake of the EMV chip card migration at the point of sale.

Adoption of mobile payments has been slow, and it's not clear why. Some have suggested the problem is a lack of understanding among consumers. Others have questioned whether mobile payments really address a consumer pain point.

Samsung may have a hard time convincing users of Samsung Pay that a breach of its LoopPay technology by Chinese hackers has nothing to do with payment card data or the security of the mobile wallet.

Europe has been a clear leader in the adoption of EMV. One notable migration took place in the United Kingdom. The U.K. began the process of promoting EMV in 2002 and completed the full roll out in 2006.

The major card networks operate from a position of strength as among the first movers in providing tokenization, but they must move with the market if they want to hold that position.

The central bank originally established a 10-year time horizon for completing upgrades to the nation's aging electronic payment system. But a task force convened by the Fed thinks that's not ambitious enough.

Though the EMV transition is a significant step in the effort towards making payments more secure, this EMV liability shift won’t solve mass data breaches on merchants.

Hackers did not steal banking or payments data from Experian, but they might as well have. Breaches like the one sustained at the company call into question the entire system of identification that banks rely on to open accounts and conduct other everyday business.

Compared with other recent breaches, the theft of 6,400 user email addresses and passwords on the American Bankers Association's website might seem like small potatoes. But experts said the attack — the first in the association's history — was still significant and could have implications for banks.