Cyber criminals took no time off in the first six months of 2019 as human-initiated attacks against online sites grew by 13% from the same period a year ago, finds the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Cybercrime Report released Tuesday. Bots, too, evolved to target new account creations. Bot attacks targeting new …

Five years ago, Apple Inc. laid claim to offering one of the first smart phone-based mobile-payment services, and now some observers say Apple Pay, with an estimated 43% of iPhone owners using the service, may be poised to score a breakthrough. Apple Pay was announced with great fanfare Sept. 9, …

Southwest Airlines will join the roster of merchants that accept Apple Pay, according to an announcement Wednesday from CellPoint Digital and UATP. UATP, the airline-owned payment network, and CellPoint Digital, a travel industry payments specialist, said Dallas-based Southwest will make Apple Pay available across all channels to buy tickets and …

Proponents of faster-payment services, which enable real-time or nearly real-time transfers, may need a bit of patience for larger-scale adoption of the technology. Fifty-six percent of attendees at the 2019 Nacha Payments conference in May said it will take at least a year, and possibly more, for their companies to …

More than a score of Texas cities have been hit with ransomware, crippling their municipal computer systems and accounting for one-third of all municipal ransomware attacks so far this year, according to Armor Defense Inc., a cloud-security company. It released a ransomware report Tuesday. Among the latest cities is Borger, …

As merchants, consumers, and financial institutions contend with the aftereffects of unceasing data breaches, Visa Inc. is adding new products to help prevent and disrupt payment fraud. Announced Tuesday, the roster of new products include Vital Signs, which monitors transactions and alerts financial institutions to signs of potential fraudulent activity …

The new chief executive of the Electronic Transactions Association will begin work the week of Sept. 3. The Washington, D.C.-based ETA said Thursday Jodie L. Kelley, senior vice president and general counsel at BSA-The Software Alliance, assumes the role vacated in January by Jason Oxman, who left to head up …

Priority Technology Holdings Inc.’s total merchant bank card processing volume increased 10.9% in the second quarter, from $9.9 billion to $11 billion, but the merchant acquirer continues to deal with the wind-down of some online subscription-billing merchants. Alpharetta, Ga.-based Priority said Tuesday that the wind-down of the subscription merchants stems …

Apple Inc. says 12 U.S. colleges, with more than 100,000 students, will enable contactless student IDs in Apple Wallet this school year. The students will be able to use their student IDs on iPhones and Apple Watches to enter buildings protected by keycard access, buy meals, and make purchases in college …

As payment companies expand ways for consumers to make digital payments, 62% of North American merchants, bankers, and fintech providers expect more such payments within the next two years, says Forrester Research Inc. in its “Understanding the Evolving Payments Landscape” report released Monday. Commissioned by Visa Inc., the report also found …