Investment

Merchants opposed to the U.S. migration to EMV-chip cards have long questioned whether the security benefit is worth the expense of putting in new payment terminals. American Express is taking some of the cost out of the equation, but even this move might not be enough to bring most merchants on board.

Gemalto reassured investors this morning that the alleged attacks by U.S. and U.K. government agents only breached the company's office network and could not have led to theft of encryption keys, which are considered an important part of digital payments security.

Bluefin Payment Systems, a technology vendor based in Georgia, will provide mobile point-to-point encryption technology to Infinite Peripherals, a point of sale system provider.

Visa Europe will introduce tokenization part of a new mobile payment service it plans to launch in April.

Responding to reports last week that its encryption keys had been stolen by U.S. and British spies five years ago, Gemalto contends its products are secure and announced it would reveal results of its investigation into the claims at a press conference Feb. 25 in Paris.

Responding to reports last week that its encryption keys had been stolen by U.S. and British spies five years ago, Gemalto contends its products are secure and announced it would reveal results of its investigation into the claims at a press conference Feb. 25 in Paris.

Gemalto, which manufactures SIM cards and EMV chips, is investigating a report that U.S. and U.K. spy agencies hacked into the company's network and stole mobile phone encryption keys, a technology also used to secure card data.

Apple Pay's contactless payment model may be straightforward and simple, but it's not the only way to move funds without cards and cash. Many companies are coming up with alternatives that work from phones, smartwatches and other devices.

The apparent hack of Gemalto by U.S. and U.K. spies casts doubt over several security measures vital to the payments industry as it embraces chip cards and adopts digital payments.

Gemalto NV, the largest maker of mobile- phone cards and a manufacturer of EMV card chips, said it’s investigating a report that U.S. and U.K. spies allegedly hacked into its computer network to steal the keys used to encrypt conversations, messages and data traffic.