Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Apple Inc. removed from its vast mobile-applications market called the App Store the Blockchain mobile wallet for accessing the Bitcoin virtual currency, an action Blockchain claims will leave no native Bitcoin options for users of Apple’s iOS mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s move quickly stirred protests …
Read More »Search Results for: merchants
Small-Merchant PCI Compliance Is on the Rise, Acquirer Survey Shows
Close to 60% of ISOs and other processors are reporting compliance rates of 40% or better among their portfolios of so-called Level 4 merchants, up about five percentage points from a year ago, according to a survey released by Atlanta-based security-solutions vendor ControlScan Inc. and the Merchant Acquirers’ Committee, a …
Read More »Target Passed a PCI Inspection Before Breach; Will Spend $100 Million on Chip Card Effort
Target Corp. said on Tuesday that it passed its latest Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI) inspection a mere three months before confirming in December that a data breach compromised 40 million customers’ payment card numbers. Target also said it is fast-tracking its efforts to roll out chip card acceptance …
Read More »Capitol Hill Hearings Will Shine the Spotlight on Payment-Card Security Lapses
Merchants and financial institutions will find their information-protection practices under intense scrutiny this week in Washington, where no fewer than four Senate and House of Representatives hearings are scheduled in the wake of payment card data breaches at Target Corp., Neiman Marcus Group and other merchants. The sessions kick off …
Read More »The Gimlet Eye: How To Make Real Payments Progress
As you’ve no doubt noticed, the huge data breach at Target Corp. has triggered an equally impressive avalanche of commentary about whether the baneful effects of such crimes might have been mitigated had Target, and the rest of the country, converted to EMV by now. The presumption here is that, …
Read More »Trends & Tactics
Plastic: High Growth, High Risk More than ever, plastic dominates the business of electronic payments in the United States, with two-thirds of all noncash transactions in 2012 occurring on a card, up substantially from 60% just three years earlier. That’s according to the Federal Reserve System’s triennial payments study, released …
Read More »Security Notes: Lessons from Target
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 …
Read More »Acquiring: Hailing Payments
Kevin Woodward With more than 171,000 taxis in the United States, the opportunity to convert cash to electronic transactions can go far. Change is coming to Washington, D.C., at least to the taxis roaming the streets of the nation’s capital. Washington is just the latest major U.S. city to add …
Read More »Networks: Transaction Transporters Anonymous
Peter Lucas They’re not household names, but network backbone providers TNS and Phoenix Managed Networks have executed a major shift beyond their long-time base in dial-up connections. Ask a merchant who his or her transaction processor or acquiring bank is and they can provide the name in a snap. Ask …
Read More »Components: EMV: Has Its Day Come?
Jim Daly It’s been two-and-a-half years since a Visa plan marked the unofficial start of the conversion of U.S. card payments to the EMV chip card standard. Will recent data breaches speed up the conversion’s snail’s pace? While still a Congressman, current Chicago mayor and former White House chief of …
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