Fraud & Security

  While the payments business continues to fret about data breaches, new information emerged this week that helps explain how such pernicious leaks happen, and why they’re happening with increased frequency. While notable breaches like the one at Sony earlier this year steal headlines, cybercriminals are plundering accounts at organizations …

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Federal regulators on Tuesday issued their final rule for preventing terrorists, drug dealers, and other criminals from using prepaid cards for money laundering. The new rule from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) subjects merchants and other non-bank entities that sell or manage prepaid cards to some …

Security weaknesses have caused Hypercom Corp. to pull the plug on a software system that enables gateways and merchants using personal computers as virtual terminals to connect to payment-processing services. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Hypercom sent a notice on July 15 to users of its SmartPayments Savannah Server and related products that …

  n That’s the conclusion of a report released this week by Javelin Strategy & Research, Pleasanton, Calif. In it, Javelin analyst Philip J. Blank notes that mobile-banking adoption among smart phone users has leveled off even though consumers continue to snap up the gadgets at a furious rate. A …

  Fear of the damage that a data breach can inflict on a brand, rather than of network fines, drives organizations to invest in compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), a study released on Tuesday says. Some 69% of the mostly online organizations surveyed cited brand protection …

  n The first U.S. financial institution to introduce EMV cards, United Nations Federal Credit Union, released the results of a study along with Gemalto, the vendor of its cards. The study comes one year after the credit union launched its chip-and-PIN credit cards. As a result of the study, …

  Federal banking regulators on Tuesday updated their 2005 guidance about authentication for Internet banking. Officially a supplement to the original guidance, the new document addresses social media, malware, and other security issues that have cropped up in recent years. It also allows financial institutions about seven months to comply. …

  The PCI Security Standards Council on Friday released its first guidelines on mobile-acceptance applications since announcing in November that it had stopped reviewing such products. The Wakefield, Mass.-based Council, which manages the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), also said it hopes to start forming a broad group of …

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