It is a constant tussle, struggle — pick your word — for merchants and consumers striving for digital safety in their daily rounds of charge card and debit use. And with the constant news of data breaches and new malware discoveries, it sometimes seems such relative “safety” is a grail that will always be just out of reach.
Category: Credit Card Security
Solstice Roundup: EMV Transitions, Watch Your Samsung, and… Emojis!
Summer solstice will be here before we can even get next week’s blog post up! So even though temperatures here in AVPS’ neighborhood are already hitting triple digits, let’s officially welcome the season of beach-going, travel adventures, and more.
Smart Cards, Smarter Passwords
The nature of payments, and how they’re made, continues to change — whether credit, debit, or prepaid. Payments continue to move from one digital platform to the next, sometimes leaving customers wondering if making any of the changes are worth it, or if something even newer will come along first.
Old Hacks, New Payments
It’s a long, fascinating moment of transition in the world of payments — and for payments around the world. That changing landscape includes virtual wallets, growing P2P payments, and ways to make existing platforms more secure — as with the EMV standards coming to American payment cards this fall.
May Day, Pt. II: More Tips For Keeping Your POS Devices Safe In a Malware World
Last week, we talked about the RawPOS Malware that has been affecting Windows-based point-of-sale devices, and we passed along some tips for upgrading, and guarding, against such attacks on you, and your customers. This week, we finish up our “pointers” for helping you keep all your gear secure. Here are both “the basics,” and a little beyond the “basics,” to maximize transaction security:
“May Day!,” Pt. I: Malware Security Alert for POS Devices
Happy May Day! In the U.S., it conjures up images of May Poles and spring love. In Europe, it’s marked with parades and marches, and is still something of a “worker’s holiday,” as it was here in the 19th Century. It was the original “Labor Day,” until the one we have now was created, so that American workers could have a day separate from what was perceived as the somewhat incendiary history of May 1st.
There and Back Again! Plus: Is Your Password As Strong as the Dollar?
As we mentioned before, we’ve been getting some brush-ups — a lot of digital brush-ups – -done to the AVPS website. Much as you can’t drive your car around when it’s in the shop, we haven’t been able to blog on our same schedule while our web presence is made more secure and more visually friendly to mobile devices.
Shocker: Nearly 80% of Businesses Fail Interim PCI Compliance
Recently, Verizon issued a report on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards — PCI DSS for short. The results were pretty bracing. As Computer Weekly summarizes “nearly 80% of businesses fail their interim PCI compliance assessment, leaving them vulnerable to cyber attacks, according to Verizon’s 2015 PCI Compliance Report “
Breaches Old and New: Target Settles, More Blue Cross Leaks; New Security Measures
Data breaches, their discontents and fallout, have filled the news this week. You’ll remember, of course, when the Target customer data breach in 2013 finally catapulted questions about customer security in the digital age onto the front page. Now comes word that Target has, at last, reached a settlement in that case. As tech website Gizmodo reports, “following lengthy discussions with the lawyers of those affected by the hack, the retailer has agreed to pay up a $10 million settlement.”
