Some 12.7 million Americans fell victim to identity fraud last year, a big number but down 3% from 13.1 million in 2013, according to Javelin Strategy and Research’s latest annual ID-fraud study. Even better, estimated fraud losses fell 11% to $16 billion from $18 billion in 2013. While those decreases …

While digital-money adoption holds great promise and has become a priority for governments globally, adoption is varied. To understand the drivers, enablers, and barriers to digital money, Citi and Imperial College London devised a digital-money readiness index Given the importance of money to society—coupled with the problems associated with transacting …

No Sweat, My Robot Will Pay Gideon Samid • Gideon@BitMint.com The decision to purchase and pay is quintessentially human, or so we believe today. Computers account for decision-support data, convenient payment-handling devices, and automated accounting. But the pivotal determination to actually make a payment remains in the unchallenged human domain, …

Gideon Samid • Gideon@BitMint.com Security is weakened in proportion to the degree that its representation strays from the truth. False assurances on the one hand, and threat inflating on the other hand, lead to suboptimal countermeasures, and greater vulnerability. Alas, the people who talk, preach, and write about security (including …

A Look Back And a Provocative Look Ahead Welcome to an anniversary party— one played out not in a ballroom or country-club drawing room but in pages of cold print. The milestone we are marking is our 10th anniversary of publishing Digital Transactions, an enterprise we rather immodestly think of …

We couldn’t recruit David Letterman to help us with this article, but what follows are the Top 10 U.S. payments events of 2013 as identified by the Retail Payments Risk Forum, a research and industry-dialogue unit at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. 10. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized …

Jim Daly Data-breach insurance has become a mainstream product in the merchant-acquiring business, but some executives say PCI compliance and diligent security practices negate the need to buy coverage. What’s next? The unnerving reality that credit and debit card-accepting merchants and their processors can have their computer systems hacked spawned …

Michael Barrett and Sebastien Taveau Standards are finally emerging that will bring secure biometric authentication to millions of smart phones. Those of us who practice the “dark arts” of information security know all too well that we are often misunderstood by our colleagues. They have been quick to impugn our …

Linda Punch Hobbled by limited resources and other handicaps, government units are struggling to combat a rising onslaught from online data thieves. When news of a data breach hits the national headlines, it usually involves retailers, processors, and others in the private sector. But government entities from park districts and …

Merchant processor Global Payments Inc. says it believes fewer than 1.5 million card numbers were taken from its processing system in a data breach disclosed on Friday. Meanwhile, Visa Inc. has removed Global from its list of merchant processors compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), but Global …