By October 2015, U.S. credit card networks and merchants will adopt EMV payment systems and point-of-sales technology. EMV chip technology, named after its creators — Europay, MasterCard and Visa — will replace the dated magnetic stripe technology currently on major credit and debit cards in favor of tiny computer chips. With the deadline looming for merchants to update their card readers to be compatible with EMV payment technology, it's critical for retailers and card providers to understand the implications of the change.
Reas Baumhof
Recent data breaches, including those of Target, Neiman Marcus, Adobe, LivingSocial and Snapchat, indicate that merely evaluating passwords isn't an effective way to protect the systems that guard online customer account information. These are high-profile examples, but in reality nearly all online merchants are experiencing an onslaught of attacks as criminals attempt to break into their systems and steal credit card and other sensitive data. Even relatively small retailers are being assaulted. For many of these businesses, unless they adopt new authentication tactics and implement better controls, it's just a matter of time until they too become a statistic. Studies have repeatedly shown that the most damaging and expensive cyber attacks all have one thing in common: hackers defeat the system's authentication system. Today's sophisticated cybercriminals employ
With the holiday shopping season in full swing and the number of mobile transactions at an all-time high, retailers must be proactive about mobile security or face significant revenue loss, backlash from customers and degradation in brand trust. Here are three ways to make your mobile transactions more secure:
While Amazon's Login and Pay offers convenience for merchants and consumers, there are severe security concerns associated with this service. Specifically, if one of the participating retail websites is compromised, login and credit card credentials for several websites can be exposed to cybercriminals. Using such a service ignores a cybercrime prevention measure security experts have stressed the importance of for some time — using unique logins across websites.
Mobile retail sales grew at an exponential rate in 2012, and the channel shows no signs of slowing down this year. In fact, mobile transactions are expected to top $1 trillion worldwide by 2017. If anything, mobile commerce is poised to become even more firmly entrenched in the marketplace as retailers gear up to provide consumers with more enhanced mobile shopping experiences.
Retailers aren't the only ones interested in mobile commerce — cybercriminals are banking on it as well. Cybercriminals are taking the techniques they've honed from online financial transactions and moving them to e-commerce sites. They can steal retail customers’ personal information (e.g., credit cards, gift card data) and put retailers at risk for fraudulent purchases.
Online retailers are sadly familiar with the risks posed by malware attacks. In recent years, fraudsters have targeted e-commerce providers with malware designed to deliver access to customer data and other restricted information. Now, cybercriminals are ramping up their attacks with new variants of the Zeus Trojan — advanced malware that allows criminals to seamlessly intercept customer data at the time of checkout.
