If asked, could you explain tokenization to your customers? Would you be able to tell them what the advantages would be if you offered a tokenization payment platform? For those who are not up-to-date on all of the new technology, tokenization could replace all the information that is contained in the magnetic stripe on the back of a credit or debit card. This would mean that stealing the information contained on the stripe would be virtually impossible. For those with high risk merchant accounts, when a customer makes a purchase online, they input their card information into your checkout system […]

Thanks to Target’s massive data breach, nearly one year ago, many customers are hesitant to use Target’s debit and credit cards. More so, many are boycotting Target all together, due to the overwhelming affect the breach had on over 10 million people. Now, while there are some hackings that not even the most secure software can catch, Target is still getting a lot of blame for it occurring. While this seems as though it might only affect Target, it also affects those who had credit issues from the breach. Many are now looking to repair their credit. This is where […]

Who would have thought that an upstanding retailer like Home Depot could have allowed a data breach that has compromised over 60 million credit and debit card users? The interesting fact is that these customers were all in the United States and Canada.  What is exceptionally telling is that customers shopping in the stores in Mexico were not affected nor were any shoppers at HomeDepot.com. Online shoppers were spared which gives a measure of security to those with a high risk merchant account. The sad note is that it was not Home Depot’s credit card processor that found the breach, […]

Congress has finally admitted that they need to act about the issues involving data theft. From last year’s Target/Neiman Marcus data theft to June 2014’s PF Chang’s data theft, there is a massive need for data security reform. However, while Congress is “interested”, the card companies already have a fix. Data theft can occur in many ways. The “old fashioned” method of sticky tape on ATM machines is still used by some, however newer data thieves are more brazen and more tech savvy. With the Target data breach, a foreign hacker managed to hack into terminals via a computer virus. […]

After the Target credit card breach was first reported by Brian Krebs on December 18, 2013 on the KrebsonSecurity blog, he made sure to mention that the breach took place at the store’s physical locations, and did not involve its e-commerce site. Details about the security breach that were reported in the media stated that it found that the Target credit card breach rivaled the 2007 TJX Companies breach involving T.J. Maxx in 2007 where an estimated 100 million card numbers were stolen, and the Heartland Payment Systems Inc. breach in 2009. After the T.J. Maxx breach, PCI, Visa, and […]