Investment

With its latest proposal, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council aims to make card data security more straightforward for merchants and organizations accepting payments.

As many as 30% of merchants bailed out on their Payment Card Industry data security test because they didn't have time or didn't understand it, ControlScan says. The vendor aims to improve the process by suppressing irrelevant questions and putting the easiest questions first.

Dmitriy Smilianets, 29, appeared Aug. 12 in federal court in Newark, N.J., where prosecutors said July 26 he was indicted with three other Russians and a Ukrainian. They are accused of hacking 17 retailers, financial institutions and payment processors, including 7-Eleven Inc., Nasdaq OMX Group Inc., Carrefour SA and J.C. Penney Co., to steal more than 160 million credit- and debit-card numbers.

In the race to provide consumers with identity verification tools that are simple and easy to use, it's in everyone's best interest to ensure that businesses are not sacrificing data security in the process.

ID Analytics Inc. wants to make sure banks know when a fraudster has taken over an account and is trying to go wild with card payments or money transfers.

EMV chips improve security over magnetic-stripe cards, but they have not been easy to implement. Years ago, a Forrester analyst said "the U.S. is going to adopt EMV in about the same way the U.S. adopted the metric system — somewhere between kicking and screaming and not at all." What have been the biggest hurdles?

Migrating to EMV does not mean card issuers have to do away with their instant-issuance systems.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is making its security standards available on a Russian-language microsite as part of a move to promote data security in Russia.

Bill.com is using its business payment technology to help users determine when and where to ask for additional security information, a move designed to spot vulnerabilities that require extra protection.

To create effective mobile payments products, developers must treat merchants and consumers as separate customer segments that have of inextricably-linked needs.