Data and information management

A New York woman convicted of participating in an identity-theft ring was sentenced Thursday to two to six years in state prison. The ring stole more than $850,000 from hundreds of JPMorgan Chase customers.

Despite years of debate, lawmakers are still grappling with key questions over how to set enhanced data security and notification standards to prevent cyber attacks, including whether they should preempt state laws.

Overall, merchants are doing a reliable job of fighting back the onslaught of e-commerce fraud, but there are some places where the defenses have dramatically broken down.

More than 400,000 USAA customers, five of which are over 90 years old, have opted to use biometric traits to authenticate themselves within the bank's mobile app.

"Big data" has been all the rage in the payments industry in recent years. While the hype seems to have subsided a bit, that might be because the most dedicated data-using merchants have put their heads down to focus on sifting through the data to investigate fraud.

Voice biometrics, fingerprint recognition, device ID and behavioral analytics are at long last becoming accurate and convenient enough for prime time.

Square Inc. says it has received more funding for its Square Capital program, which grants loans to Square merchants based on their transaction history.

Card networks have built their legacy on transporting payments and consumer data, and over time the data itself has become far more complex.

A new series of reports from analytics and consulting firm Accenture found that nearly 90% of the 450 financial firms surveyed plan on increasing their spending in risk management related to cybersecurity and fraud detection and prevention.

A group of small banks and credit unions could not persuade a judge to block the settlement Target and MasterCard reached last month that would reimburse banks on the card network $19 million for losses related to the retailer's breach.

The good news is that EMV is very effective at preventing the use of counterfeit credit/debit cards at the point of sale (POS), commonly referred to as card-present (CP) fraud.

In theory, all parties benefit when consumers have their choice of payment options, but the deluge of new technologies has led issuers to respond in ways that could create lasting frustration for consumers and merchants.

Visa is providing merchants with an online information and resource center to prepare for their transition to using chip-enabled credit and debit cards.

Because biometrics can't be reduced to a single hash (a number generated from a string of text), providers that store biometric information must rely on the security of their encryption keys for safekeeping of data that can't be revoked.

American Express has created a new cobrand credit card for consumers who shop through its Plenti loyalty program.

Discover Financial Services has promoted Julie Loeger to its chief marketing position for U.S. cards.

The Costco cobrand card was a huge win for Visa, but nevertheless the card network's chief executive, Charlie Scharf, found himself defending the terms of the partnership.

Corporate payment cards usually have sophisticated restrictions or controls designed to make unauthorized use difficult, if not impossible.

Another Bank of America executive has joined Novantas, a maker of financial-analytics software for banks.

Data security organizations have developed an EMV chip-card education program to help independent sales organizations and software vendors simplify testing and certification for their merchant clients.