With Memorial Day, summer’s first “bookend” arrives, for a season that marks its midpoint with the 4th of July, and wraps up — practically speaking — with Labor Day.
Category: AVP Solutions Merchant Info
More on Upbeat Consumers (and Banks): Fed Reports Card Use Up for Spring
Last week, we reported on findings that consumer confidence was on the rise, and this week, we have some tangible evidence of how that confidence is manifesting. After a winter slowdown, in part caused by the harsh weather, consumers started to say “charge it!” more often in March.
Consumers Happier, While Symantec Resigned to Security Breaches
An interesting array of tea leaves to read and report on this week. The first “leaf batch” comes from the folks at Nielsen. Yes, “Nielsen” of TV rating fame, but they report on all kinds of consumer trends and “ratings.” Recently they issued a report stating that consumer confidence ‘round the world had climbed to pre-recession levels in the year’s first quarter. That confidence had “ended on a flat note in 2013,” their article said, “but signs of a brighter sentiment were right around the corner. With an index score of 96 in the first quarter—the highest level since first-quarter 2007, that optimism was validated.
After The Breachin’: Chip-and-Pin Comes to Target
As was pointed out about the recent Heartbleed security hole that was so pervasive, it presented a chance — bad as it was — for a lot of companies to reinvent and update their security protocols, for consumers to opt in for “double login” options on various accounts (a password and a PIN, say), and for the general level of security, web-wide, to be enhanced.
Windows XP is Everywhere, and It’s Ending: Are Your Point-of-Sales Devices Safe?
As your roving correspondents, we have to, of course, rove. As in hit the road, roam far afield, attend a conference, track down a story. When we do travel, we go — as do you — with an array (too many?) of screens. A small one in our pocket. A mid-size one for reading. And then there’s the laptop. Our travel laptop, which has been with us awhile, is still running the comforts of Windows XP as its operating system.
Beyond the Stripe Swipe: “Contactless” Cards Are Booming
We write a lot about the coming changes to “charge cards” as we’ve known them, for a couple generations. Changes driven both by technology, and the vulnerabilities of that technology. For example, as a regular reader of these posts, you know that EMV cards are coming, with adaptation being pushed even faster by news of massive breaches at Target, Neiman-Marcus, and other retailers.
Restaurant Owners Readying for EMV But Want More Card Protection
Plastic and digits are used in lieu of cash everywhere, but the food biz continues to find itself one of the most heavily “charged” industries, since everyone — whether it’s a fast food fish filet, sit-down bone-in ribeye, a morning tofu scramble, or anything else — has to eat.
2014: The Year of the Breach?
We certainly hope not. But the FBI isn’t so sure. A recent Washington Post article states that “nearly two dozen companies have been hacked in cases similar to the Target breach and more almost certainly will fall victim in the months ahead, the FBI recently warned retailers,” this “according to an official who was not authorized to speak publicly.”
Is Card Security Coming to U.S. Credit… “At Last?”
The wake of the biggest data breach in U.S. history continues with its fallout, including the news from targeted Target that the hackers originally were able to pilfer their way into the discount chain’s system by “using electronic credentials stolen from a vendor,” according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
