Data security

When cardmaker American Banknote (ABnote) CIO John Ekers discussed his company's Apple Passbook Android clone last week, he observed that "in the last 3-4 weeks, we're getting a lot more interest in limited use keys (LUK)," which is the first element of tokenization.

Fraudsters, anticipating the U.S. shift to EMV security at the point of sale, are busy looking for ways to hack into the e-commerce sites and consumer bank accounts that will be unaffected by the change in payment card security.

There is money to be made for merchants who support mobile payments. However, cyber criminals have noticed and they want their cut, too. The newer and more untested the technology, the greater its potential vulnerability.

Protecting payment card data is a never-ending struggle, and the fraudsters are only getting more creative. So far this year several incidents and studies have demonstrated the evolving nature of cybercrime.

Battery Ventures, a tech-focused investment firm, has agreed to acquire Physical Security Business Unit, part of the security division of Nice Systems, a vendor that focuses primarily on the financial services industry.

Fiserv is aiming to improve the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of biometric authentication by shipping palm-biometric kits to its customers.

The ability to browse limitless shops and purchase goods and services from almost anywhere in the world has revolutionized commerce.

MasterCard will provide tokenization technology to the Samsung Pay mobile wallet when it launches in Europe.

Financial institutions take information security concerns very seriously, but few make it a priority to keep accountholders updated on their safeguarding efforts.

MasterCard is cooperating with a European investigation into its fees, though it is questionable that this process will have a widespread effect on interchange, according to MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga.

While tokenization does represent progress, it is important to consider whether tokenization is, in fact, enough to secure online payments. There are some vulnerabilities, and as cyber thieves grow more sophisticated, companies will have to continue to innovate better security solutions, as well as ensure the ones that are on the market are being used as effectively as possible.

Bank regulators are likely to take further action to force banks to upgrade their cybersecurity processes as hackers continue to find ways to penetrate institutions’ defenses, Benjamin Lawsky, the top former New York bank supervisor, said Tuesday.

There's a classic approach behind many of the retail cyberattacks that make the news: Backoff malware, which “sniffs” the traffic that flows on a network to identify and steal credit card data passed between point of sale (POS) terminals.

Fiserv has agreed to use Fujitsu's handprint-scanning system for fraud prevention in its account-processing product.

Claims of security lapses at LifeLock and Experian call into question the value of these companies' identity theft protection services, which many banks offer to their customers.

Protecting payment card data is a never-ending struggle, and the fraudsters are only getting more creative. So far this year several incidents and studies have demonstrated the evolving nature of cybercrime.

PayPal's gotten off to a rousing start as an independent company, but Visa CEO Charlie Scharf doesn't appear to be worried.

New York State's interim bank superintendent is asking pointed questions of a new instant messaging service. The outcome of the inquiry could broadly affect the way vendors work with regulators.

Identity theft protection company LifeLock is coming under fire from the Federal Trade Commission for failing to adequately protect customers' credit card and bank account data, Social Security numbers and other sensitive personal information, among other allegations.

As more point of sale terminals include connections to the Internet and customers' mobile devices, payment companies may need to consider themselves in an "Internet of Things" environment — with all of the risks that implies.