Just before his early death in 1957, John von Neumann designed a self-reproducing automata. The brightest mathematician of the 20th century, von Neuman realized the implications of his design and attempted to hide it from the public. A self-reproducing entity can spawn “children” entities (copies) marked by random mutations that …

As criminals’ knowledge of how to beat multi-factor authentication through phishing schemes increases, the need for payment providers to implement phishing-resistant solutions continues to grow. Phishing attacks are a form of social engineering in which cybercriminals deceive consumers into revealing personal and account information. The cybercrime can also involve installation …

With summer travel on the rise, fraudsters are readier than ever to take advantage of unwary motorists. Toll-road fraud is generating complaints in at least a dozen states, says the Identity Theft Resource Center in a report issued this month. The latest scam involves text messages impersonating a toll authority …

If you know anything about the payment space these days, you know that the natives are restless. Merchants have been fed up with interchange rates for years, with no shortage of lawsuits to voice their complaints. Even after winning the right to pass on interchange costs to the consumer, merchants …

Visa Inc. is taking up the notion of a digital payment identity and making it part of its product mix. Announced Wednesday at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, the Visa Flexible Credential is but one of several products the payments network formally debuted, including broader tap-to-pay capabilities, a …

Block Inc. chief executive Jack Dorsey fired back at news reports that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the company for alleged compliance lapses at Block’s Square and Cash App units. The reports “lack full context,” Dorsey said during Block’s quarterly earnings call late Thursday. News of the investigation …

The initial penetration was slow. The original Diner’s Club credit card of 1949 was too different to quickly catch on. But it had a compelling message, as the historic burden of trusting the customer was shifted away from the merchant, a service for which the merchant was willing to pay. …

It’s May, and that means it’s time for our annual exercise to seek out and describe the payments players, apart from the big networks, that are rewriting the rules for the digital exchange of value. Capital One Financial Corp.’s bombshell announcement in February that it is offering to acquire Discover …

The number of publicly reported data breaches nearly doubled during the first quarter compared to the same period a year ago, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s quarterly report, issued Tuesday. The ITRC tracked 841 publicly reported data breaches during the first quarter, up from 442 during the same …

Rising costs aren’t just happening in grocery stores. They have caught up to fraud-recovery costs when consumers work to untangle the mess caused by identity theft and scams. The average out-of-pocket expense for a consumer in that situation ballooned 70% from $119 in 2022 to $202 in 2023, according to …