Microsoft Corp. used a trio of legal tools last month to raid an alleged cybercrime operation that had been using the infamous Zeus virus to steal funds and data from the financial-services industry, the software giant disclosed on Monday. The raids, which Microsoft and partner organizations first announced March 25, …

The alliance MasterCard Inc. announced earlier this week with Intel Corp. to secure e-commerce transactions will not supersede SecureCode, a MasterCard online authentication system, but will fairly soon lead to a new type of contactless-payment device from an emerging category of ultra-thin, fast-start PCs, executives with both companies tell Digital …

  What with the Durbin Amendment taking effect and serious moves in mobile payments, many observers had the feeling that the pace of change in e-payments quickened in 2011. But along with faster change come more problems. Herewith some of the most salient.   By Jim Daly and John Stewart …

  What Keeps ATM Execs up at Night?       Complying with new Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and fighting fraudsters who put skimmers on their machines rank high on the to-do lists of ATM managers.   The findings come in a new report from Aite Group LLC …

  Linda Punch   Increasingly sophisticated fraud schemes show that personal identification numbers are more vulnerable than once thought. Bring in the reinforcements.       For the past 40 years, personal identification numbers have built an enviable reputation as a nearly inviolable security feature. They’re much more secure than …

  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 …

  Gideon Samid / Gideon@AGSgo.com   What is a strategic security analysis (SSA) when it comes to payments and banking? It is essentially a matrix where each row identifies a credible attack scenario and each column lists a counter-action available to us. At the intersection of each column with each …

  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. …

  Security Peter Lucas While it’s effective against malware like the pesky Zeus Trojan, banks have been slow to adopt out-of-band authentication. Now, with mobile and P2P applications growing, that may soon change. Imagine the following scenario: A cybercrook plants a malware Trojan, infamously known as Zeus, in the Web …

Checks caused most of the losses suffered by businesses victimized by payment fraud in 2010, which is no surprise. Businesses, however, are now falling victim to newer types of fraud, particularly account takeovers, that fraudsters have used against consumers in recent years, according to the Association for Financial Professionals’ latest …