Data and information management

2014 was a big year for payments. Disruption came from within the financial services industry and from outsiders like Apple and Walmart. Mainstream payment companies had to respond to these new competitors as well as adapt to fresh attention from regulators and fraudsters.

There is no doubt Visa, MasterCard and indeed many of their member banks will initially lose revenues as the new Russian card system takes some of the fees normally earned by them.

In its first year of heavy involvement in testing and certifying payment security technology, scientists at Underwriters Laboratories have determined that tokenization should be a significant piece of a strong security "triangle."

By now many of you have probably seen the reports of somewhat disappointing Black Friday turnout from the National Retail Federation.

Late last week, hackers took down Payza's blog and posted a mocking message in its place, implying that they were sitting on a treasure trove of stolen data. Payza says this was merely a hacker's stunt, and that no data of real value could have been compromised, but the company must still deal with the event's damage to its brand.

Payments and merchant services provider Worldpay has closed its acquisition of SecureNet Payment Systems from private equity firm Sterling Partners.

Staples Inc., the largest U.S. office-supply retailer, said 1.16 million payment cards may have been affected in a series of data breaches that occurred from July into September.

The Sony Pictures web attack may have led you to question whether your own business was secure and if the information your clients provide via different payment methods can be breached, causing mistrust between business owner and vendor.

Payment processor Payza's blog suffered a Web attack on Friday, Dec. 19, though the company said the assailants did not compromise sensitive business information.

Large security incidents this year included JPMorgan Chase's August breach affecting 76 million households and seven million small businesses, Home Depot's breach of 56 million card account records it confirmed in September, and the Sony hack discovered in November, in which emails were stolen and hard drives destroyed. Here are some educated guesses about some of the security threats that will crop up next year.

Card issuing and acquiring software provider OpenWay is partnering with People's Bank of Kazakhstan to deliver the first chip-based UnionPay cards in Central Asia.

State money transmitter licensing laws are among the most important rules that address the dangers posed by payments, especially in the non-bank payments area.

Optimal Payments has released a series of onboarding and developer options in an attempt to stay nimble amid the growing market of companies that use application programming interfaces (APIs) to offer transaction capabilities to retailers.

Nearly a decade ago, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council told banks that passwords are not enough to guard financial data, and many companies scrambled to evaluate new and sometimes bizarre alternatives.

WEX Inc. has launched a new mobile application that searches for the most cost-effective gas station based on their location rather than just showing the price of gas.

MBNA Ltd. is working with MasterCard Inc. to test the MasterPass digital wallet in the U.K., with plans for a possible launch in early 2015.

Heading into 2015, merchants weary from data breach fallout and worried about stricter PCI guidance will likely turn to third parties for payment security over a do-it-yourself approach.

As mobile wallet providers seek to add value to their services in the payments market, account aggregator Yodlee says it has a data analysis tool that will help that expansion.

Tangerine, Simple, American Express and Discover are some of the financial institutions that use Apple's Touch ID fingerprint-authentication technology to let consumers replace passwords or to add security.

Security vendor Retail Decision Plc (ReD) is working with First Data to deter card-not-present fraud in Mexico.