Page 54 - Cyber Warnings - November 2015

Payment Card Security Upgrade Doesn't Go Far Enough, Critics

Say

By Anna Wehberg, Sr. Marketing Director, Hexis Cyber Solutions

For four years, the business press has been
beating the drum about a massive shift in the
payment card security landscape for retailers in
the United States. On October 1st, that deadline
came and went.

The "EMV liability shift," as it is known, takes its
name from the payment card companies that
originally sought the reforms - EuroCard,
MasterCard and Visa.

From now on, when cybercriminals strike a
particular transaction, a merchant will be monetarily responsible if shown to have been the weak
link in their security chain.

Previously, card issuers took responsibility for most of the financial fallout from fraudulent card
transactions and cyber-attacks.

Chip cards replace magnetic stripe technology
The change is meant to force retailers to adopt point-of-sale systems that accept cards embedded
with a security chip. It's tougher to commit fraud with these types of cards than the magnetic stripe
cards still highly prevalent in the U.S. market.

And therein lies one of the main problems of this transition - consumers don't even have these
cards in their wallets yet.

At the end of August, out of the estimated 1.2 billion payment cards circulating in the U.S., a scant
200 million were chip cards, according to Randy Vanderhoof of the EMV Migration Forum.

Even when payment with cards with chips are more prevalent, it's a dicey notion that any particular
retailer will have purchased or leased the new readers needed to process chipped cards.
While large operations like Target and Wal-Mart are investing heavily in the shift, the mom and pop
shops that make up the vast majority of retailers simply aren't going to have these readers in place.

According to one estimate by BridgePay Network Solutions, only 5 percent to 10 percent of U.S.
retailers currently have the equipment necessary to read chip cards.

54 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – November 2015 Edition
Copyright © Cyber Defense Magazine, All rights reserved worldwide