If you’re traveling abroad this summer, you might want to make sure you have at least one EMV-ready credit (or debit) card at your disposal. (The same might apply if you’re traveling a couple years into the future, after they become more widespread here in the U.S.!)
Tag: credit card news
Visa Raising Standards on Prepaid Debit Cards
According to a recent NY Times article, Visa is responding to consumer concerns that prepaid cards are often trickier to use — or to give — than they should be, since fees and terms often differ, leaving users confused, or simply with less of a balance than they imagined they had.
P.F. Chang’s Breach, and Krebs on “What Do Hackers Want?”
It’s good to keep an eye on the “Krebs on Security” website, where much of the recent all-too-spectacular news about data breaches gets broken, and later analyzed. This week, Brian Krebs is reporting on the latest retail breach, coming from the chain of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro restaurant (if you’ve eaten at one lately, doublecheck your plastic!)
Updates: California Senate Lets EMV Law Lapse; The State of Security
We wanted to update you on an item we ran last week, wherein California’s State Senate was on the verge of issuing its own mandates for a switch over to EMV standards in card transactions, setting April 1, 2016 as the date.
However, according to a report in Computerworld, “the full Senate missed the voting deadline of May 30, ending its chances of passage until a new legislative session begins.”
EMV Vote In California While MasterCard Announces “Zero Liability” for PINs
The push for those chip-carrying EMV cards, which would make it more difficult for fraudulent transactions to occur, continues apace. In California, the State Senate is advancing a bill that would make April 1, 2016 — no fooling! — the date by which both retailers and card issuers would need to support the chip-and-PIN standard.
Memorial Day — and Summer Travel Season — Arrive
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.
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.
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.
POS Attacks May Be Declining (But…); Consumers Turning to Prepaid?
Certainly good news would be welcome on the internet and data security fronts these days. Technology website CRN may have some, in a story whose headline proclaims that “despite Prominent Retail Breaches, POS System Attacks Decline.”
