Uber Account Security Needs a Lift — and Other Trends in Payments
Introduction
No sooner do we finish arranging a morning Uber ride for our son, than we sit down to sift through the week’s financial news — always redacted and highlighted here for your edification — to find that “stolen Uber account security (are) worth more than stolen credit cards,” according to a CNBC Report.
The Shift in Value
Furthermore, according to Trend Micro, a security company, cybercriminals have shifted their focus away from credit card numbers. Instead, they place higher value on stolen Uber, PayPal, and Netflix accounts, as well as personal information like Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Moreover, criminals show an increased interest in committing identity fraud, evident from the varying prices of these stolen identifiers on the ‘deep Web,’ which depend on the specific information being sold.
Stolen credit card and debit card info now sells for less on the black market, in part because of successful countermeasures undertaken by payment processors like AVPS, and businesses like yours: “The reason why credit cards are worth less to crooks at this point is because banks and credit card issuers have developed more sophisticated fraud detection systems, rending stolen cards worthless very quickly,” the article states.
Concerns and Predictions
Despite this, according to the IT security industry’s SC Magazine, “payment card data attacks worry over half of UK and US businesses.”
The figures, according to a survey by English telecom company Semafone, show that “well over half (60 percent) of US and 52 percent of UK enterprises feel that an attack on payment card data is likely or more than likely.”
This coming after a year in which “EMV cards were rolled out on a major scale, making transactions more secure, but leaving merchants, cardholders and issuers to keep up with the October 1st liability deadline,” as synopsized in a payments article on HuffingtonPost.
That HuffPost article provides a January overview of what 2016 might hold for payments. Among the its predictions about new, and presumably even more secure, types of payments coming online, will be “Selfie Pay,” which uses facial recognition features, along with a rise in more mobile banking and mobile payment features.
Persistence of Data Hacks
However, despite these measures, and sometimes even as a result of them, hackers routinely breach and access information, extracting any data that can contribute to building a more detailed profile of their victims for the purpose of identity theft, as CNBC reports.
Traditionally, that information came from the account numbers, PINs, and more used in card transactions. Increasingly, it may come from pilfering medical records, or even your Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, PayPal, or numerous other accounts.
We will keep working throughout this still-new year to protect all the data and transactions you’ve entrusted us with. And you can contact your AVPS Rep with any questions you may have, or about any upgrades you may need.
You can even arrange, of course, to come meet with us in person! Just make sure it’s really you riding in the back of that Uber!
