A grassroots campaign is under way to educate payment-application resellers and integrators about data-security best practices. Will costs prove to be a barrier? Data breaches at small merchants may not grab the headlines that hacks at huge chains such as Target Corp. do, but make no mistake, small merchants are …

All of us in the security business face a humiliating reality: Everything we do is only effective against hackers who are dumber than we are. A smarter hacker, with more imagination, could devise a penetration strategy that we are not smart enough to conceive, and hence can offer no countermeasures …

• In-store mobile payments made with wallets enabled with near-field communication will total nearly $240 billion worldwide by 2021 as mobile-wallet competition intensifies and the contactless-payment infrastructure matures, predicts researcher Strategy Analytics. • Closed-loop gift card provider SVM LP acquired 1to1 Card, a prepaid card management-services firm for incentive, loyalty and …

Each reported breach is a nightmare, but the good news is that each one can also teach acquirers and merchants useful lessons about securing payments data. When fast-food chain Wendy’s Co. became the latest brand-name merchant to fall prey to a data-stealing malware attack in late January, the news served …

Each reported breach is a nightmare, but the good news is that each one can also teach acquirers and merchants useful lessons about securing payments data. When fast-food chain Wendyäó»s Co. became the latest brand-name merchant to fall prey to a data-stealing malware attack in late January, the news served …

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 …

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 …

As the EMV reality squeezes card fraudsters out of the card-present business, they are all crowding into the online racket. U.S. retailers should be ready. With retailers seeking advice about this, the first question I ask usually raises eyebrows. I don’t ask about protocols or gadgets. I ask to check …

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 …

Last month, the well-known journalist Ted Koppel came out with a very alarming book, Lights Out, arguing that the cyber community agrees that the power grid in the United States is vulnerable to a devastating assault that would incapacitate the system for many months. In this scenario, a new generation …