Fraud & Security

With the coming of mobile payments and their attendant security issues expanding demand for so-called token service providers, the PCI Security Standards Council has issued rules intended to keep the tokenization environment safe. The Wakefield, Mass.-based PCI Council in December quietly released a 92-page document titled, “Additional Security Requirements and …

A new report finds that fraud activity is surging, while Landry’s Inc. says it has uncovered malware on its point-of-sale system and removed it. Identify fraud is on the rise, finds the 2016 Identity Fraud Study released Tuesday by Javelin Strategy & Research. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based research firm found that …

Consumers seem to be very forgiving of retailers who experience data breaches, according to findings from a recent survey for the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, a trade group of payment processors. Most customers resume shopping—and using a payment card—at a breached retailer within a few months, and among those that don’t …

To the extent there is greater mobile-payments use among merchants and consumers this year, that increase will likely bring with it a greater potential for fraud. That’s the cautionary note from Fair Isaac Corp. executive T.J. Horan, vice president of fraud solutions at the analytics-software company. In-store mobile payments will …

In response to pleas from merchant acquirers, Visa Inc. this month modified a deadline in its program to get small merchants into compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, a program the leading payment card network announced to acquirers in October. The change affects the usage of qualified integrators …

E-commerce merchants and the payments companies providing them with merchant services have reason to be both happy and disappointed with the 2015 holiday season. On the one hand, merchants handled the voluminous number of e-commerce orders by using their physical stores to fulfill their online sales. The volume of these …

As the payments industry contends with ongoing state and federal regulatory inquiries, the Electronic Transactions Association will release an updated version of its “Guidelines on Merchant and ISO Underwriting and Risk Monitoring” in February. The final edits are being made, says Deana Rich, principal of Deana Rich Consulting Inc., which …

Young adults and high earners have something in common. Both consumer groups are less likely than consumers overall to use debit cards, according to a report released Tuesday by Mercator Advisory Group Inc. The report, “Consumers and Debit in the U.S.: Heightened Security Concerns,” canvassed more than 3,000 U.S. adults …

Data breaches that compromised credit and debit card information were constantly in the news in 2015, but the number of cards affected is way down from the totals for 2014 and 2013, according to a nonprofit that monitors breaches. The San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center reports that as of …

Visa Inc. has announced new data-security requirements for small merchants, one of which says that beginning Jan. 31, 2017, merchant acquirers must annually validate compliance by their so-called Level 4 merchants with the Payment Card Industry data security standard. Other new Visa requirements involve qualified integrators and resellers, or QIRs. …