October 21st, 2013 by Elma Jane
UL’s (Underwriter Laboratories) latest contribution to the future of payments has been accomplished through its three years of work with National Security, a French biometrics company that has created a commercially viable biometric technology solution for the point of sale.
The move positions UL and National Security at the forefront of an industry that is expected to expand by 140 percent to reach $12 billion in revenue over the next five years, potentially transforming online, mobile and in-store commerce by increasing the speed of transactions in the process.
Still, arguments can be made that biometric use at the point of sale will remain limited. Why does UL believe the market is right for biometrics, and how did it successfully ensure biometric payments will be ready for all parts of the payment process?
Why The Time Is Now For Biometrics
Consumer concerns regarding identity theft and violence are on the rise, and the solution according to many is a viable biometrics payment solution. Reports show that there is already strong demand in the U.S. and Asian markets for such products, and major research outlets have put their support behind the technology.
UL’s case study elaborates on the benefits illustrating how biometric data has been developed to be harder for hackers to infiltrate and compliant with EMV security standards.
Developing The Technology
UL’s work to ensure biometrics will remove friction at the POS has been extensive. For example, its latest case study profiles how UL developed the underlying technology to overcome challenges and work in harmony with wireless technologies such as bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Further, it explains how UL assessed the human health impact of National Security’s biometric solutions.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale Tagged with: biometric, bluetooth, commerce, data, developing, EMV, future, hackers, identity theft, impact, in-store, mobile, online, payment process, payments, point of sale, POS, process, security standards, solution, speed, transactions, viable, Wi-Fi, wireless
October 21st, 2013 by Elma Jane
Retailers today collect email at every point of interaction. Collecting customer information in the store at the point of sale (POS) offers the greatest potential to build retailer’s email list quickly and to drive timely offers and communications that increase customer loyalty and retention.
The practice of collecting email addresses at the point of sale (POS) isn’t a new one. However, more companies are embracing the trend, and they’re doing so with increasing regularity.
E-Receipts
One popular technique among retailers is to ask shoppers if they would like a receipt emailed to them. It is important to note that an agreement to receive an e-receipt should not be necessarily interpreted as consent to be added to a commercial email list unless this intent is adequately communicated to the consumer and they consent. It always best practice to reference their consent to marketing emails at the same time as the e-receipt request.
It is possible to collect (PII) Personally Identifiable Information at the counter in a
careful and conscientious manner if you follow guidelines.
1. Be transparent about the commercial intent. A consumer who feels misled is more likely to complain and to seek redress under the consumer protection laws. If following different scripts is a challenge, apply the same disclosure/request script for both credit and cash transactions.
2. Consider using the credit card terminal or other touchpad device for customers to enter their email rather than using the sales associate. The device should first prompt the customer to consent to receiving an in-store e-receipt and/or marketing communications, ideally before proceeding with the transaction, it could be after as well.
3. Decouple PII collection from the credit card purchase. Ask customers for their email addresses before taking their credit cards or after they sign off on the purchase so it is clear that email is not required as part of the transaction.
4. Fulfill any incentives offered at the counter through email. Provide each consumer with a dynamic and unique link. A consumer will have less of a reason to give you a valid email address if you offer and fulfill the incentive at POS. Limiting the use of the incentive to email will help you avoid incentive abuse.
5. Send a welcome permission pass. Don’t assume that the customer wants anything more than an in-store e-receipt even if you can legally claim to have this right. Let the customer make an informed decision at the counter or in a subsequent email.
6. Validate submitted data. Ask customers to verify the accuracy of their PII before submitting. Use appropriate list management tools to prevent avoidable domain errors.
Clients that take the proper steps to overcome POS challenges and risks will reap the rewards of subscriber loyalty, a stronger reputation and better inbox performance in the long run.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Point of Sale Tagged with: associate, best practice, cash, commercial, communications, companies, consumer, credit, credit-card, customer, e-receipts, email, emailed, incentive, interaction, list, loyalty, offers, personally identifiable information, pii, point, point of sale, POS, retailers, rewards, sales, script, subscriber, timely, touchpad, transactions, transparent
October 18th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Cash registers were the only game in town not too long ago, but these days companies have many more choices. Replacing antiquated cash registers with modern POS (point of sale devices carries a number of important benefits, including:
1. Can cut down on user errors. Hitting a wrong key is always a risk when ringing a sale, but point of sale devices have built in checks to ensure that the information is entered accurately.
2. Customers receive more informative itemized receipts with a point of sale devices. Many cash registers can only print the date and the amount of the sale, but since point of sale devices are tied into the inventory control system they can provide much more detailed information, including a description of the item, the list price and the sale price.
3. Easy to look up past transactions. If you need to know how much you sold last Tuesday a point of sale system can give you that information in a snap. It would take many hours of laborious work to find the same answer using a cash register.
4. Maintenance and repair costs are often much lower on a point of sale device than a cash register. The number of companies that repair cash registers is dwindling, and that means that repair costs can be rather high. There are many vendors who repair point of sale devices, and that can keep repair costs low.
5. Provide faster service than old fashioned cash registers. Every part of the process, from authorizing a credit card transaction to printing a customer receipt, is faster on a point of sale device.
6. Simplify the accounting process. Old fashioned cash registers force accountants to sort through hundreds of receipts, but with a point of sale system financial personnel can simply use the built in reports or create their own.
7. Unlike a cash register, a point of sale system often includes an overall inventory management system. Store owners can use a point of sale system to track their biggest sellers and reorder those products when stock gets low.
8. Workers now a days are often more comfortable with point of sale devices than old fashioned cash registers. Generation now entering the workforce never knew a time without computers, and as a result they are very comfortable working with computerized technology like point of sale devices.
9. You can use a point of sale system to create your own purchase orders, eliminating an extra step in the ordering process. You can even automate the ordering process to make sure you never run out of your hottest selling products.
10. You can see real time inventory with a point of sale device, something that even the best cash registers simply cannot do. In fact, many companies have found that implementing a point of sale system virtually eliminates the need for a costly hand count.
There are many reasons why your company should consider state of the art point of sale device and ditching the old fashioned cash register. These devices can lower the cost of doing business while increasing productivity, and that can be good for the bottom line.
Ready to make the switch from a cash register to a point of sale system? National Transaction can provide the software, hardware and support for any POS need. NTC integrate your payment processing into many accounting software titles such as Intuit Quickbooks or Peachtree Accounting. NTC can also provide integation for any restaurant cash register system and all industry specific solutions. NTC provide credit card readers for Android, Apple and Blackberry smartphones and tablet devices. National Transaction can make the World your Point Of Sale.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: accounting, amount, Android, Apple, authorizing, benefits, blackberry, cash register, computerized, control, costs, credit-card, date, devices, hardware, inventory, itemized, low, maintenance, point of sale, POS, price, print, process, readers, receipts, reorder, repair, sale, sale price, Smartphones, software, stock, system, transactions, vendors, virtually
October 18th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Verifone Ruby 2 POS
VeriFone Systems, announced today the availability of Commander Site Controller, the company’s next generation site management solution, and Ruby2 a touch-screen point of sale (POS) solution, both designed to provide greater efficiency, faster payment acceptance and new management capabilities that maximize profit potential for convenience store retailers.
Commander Site Controller is purpose-built for rugged c-store environments and combines site, payment and forecourt control in one device, creating additional flexibility in store configuration. Its future-proof system architecture includes expansion slots and ports for additional capacity and functionality. Additionally, Commander Site Controller features 100 percent IP communication for increased speed of EMV transactions.
Ruby2 is the next evolution of VeriFone’s Ruby POS platform, a 20-year leader in the petroleum industry. It features a fully-touchscreen console that increases checkout speed by providing fast and efficient order and payment processing, and a smaller footprint for increased counter space. Ruby2 is compatible with the latest VeriFone product offerings, including customer engagement media solutions, site management software to efficiently manage multiple locations seamlessly, and the latest in fuel control management.
VeriFone is taking petroleum retail and c-store operations to new heights of efficiency and manageability. These next-generation systems build on the success of Sapphire site controller and original Ruby POS systems with the ability to expand in order to meet customers’ future needs.
Commander Site Controller’s cloud based management software platform – Commander Console—enables owners to remotely and simultaneously complete PLU price changes, tax rate adjustments, fuel price changes and promotional updates in real time for multiple site locations from any web enabled device or mobile app for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.
Ruby2 will be available this fall on certain networks while Commander Site Controller is available today on certain networks.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale Tagged with: acceptance, app, architecture, capabilities, capacity, command site controller, convenience, EMV, engagement, expansion, forecourt, iOS, management, mobile, networks, payment, plu, point of sale, POS, retailers, ruby 2, rugged, seemlessly, site, Smartphones, store, systems, touch-screen, touchscreen, transactions, verifone
October 17th, 2013 by Elma Jane
VeriFone and National Payment Card Association (NPCA) debuted a mobile payment and rewards solution that enables convenience store and petroleum retailers to provide customers with smartphone-based payment options at the pump.
Utilizing VeriFone’s Smart Fuel Controller and NPCA’s mobile payment solution, c-store and gas station operators with VeriFone payment acceptance systems can quickly implement a fixed low-cost mobile payment and rewards program built on existing infrastructure used for merchant branded debit cards.
Consumers are increasingly drawn to rewards-based fuel purchase programs and they expect to be able to use their mobile phone to complete transactions at the pump. NPCA and VeriFone are showing how easy it is for CSPs to offer mobile payment and reward options to customers that increase loyalty and sales.
VeriFone Smart Fuel solutions make it easy for CSPs to offer forecourt pump POS payment without incurring the cost of installing new dispensers. The Smart Fuel Controller combines pump and pay-point support into a single unit, simplifying installation and maintenance, and eliminating the need for third-party interface devices to integrate pay-point management with in-store POS systems.
Merchants can develop their own mobile app, or apply their brand to a mobile app supplied by NPCA, to enable customers to pay for purchases and receive loyalty incentives using their smartphones.
Consumers today would rather utilize the capabilities of their smartphones versus pulling out their wallets. Using this solution, retailers can easily and cost-effectively create mobile loyalty programs that attract and reward high-value customers – without having to replace their existing payment infrastructure.
NPCA’s debit-based payment programs provide retailers with the ability to drive customer loyalty and reduce the cost of payments. Fuel discounts are funded from interchange savings that retailers would otherwise pay to banks. Payment processing is done by NPCA using the automated clearing house (ACH) system to clear debits to cardholder checking accounts and net settle with retailers each day. The company holds five patents related to the processing and methods for ACH-based decoupled debit and mobile payments.
Come November VeriFone and NPCA mobile payments solution will be available for beta testing.
Posted in Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Point of Sale, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: acceptance, ach, app, apply, cardholder, consumers, cost, debit cards, devices, infrastructure, interchange, interface, loyalty, merchant, mobile, pay-point, payment, payments, phone, POS, Processing, rewards, sales, smart, Smartphones, solution, transactions, verifone, wallets
October 15th, 2013 by Elma Jane
What is an electronic check?
Electronic Check also known as Echeck – is an electronic version of a Paper Check. Electronic Checks allow merchants to convert paper check payments made by customers to electronic payments that are processed through the (ACH) Automated Clearing House Network. It’s a fast, efficient, and secure way to process check payments.
Because of the many benefits and increased security methods that electronic checks offer, this method of payment is quickly growing in popularity. In 2007, electronic check conversion increased by 30%, with more than 3.1 billion paper checks converted to echecks through in-store transactions. Familiarizing yourself with how electronic checks work, the benefits and security features they offer, and how you can get started with electronic check conversion will save you time and money and help you provide greater protection for your business and your customers.
How it works:
Electronic check conversion is a simple method of processing payments, and the changes to how you do business are minimal. One of this method’s greatest advantages is that you can electronically submit checks instead of having to physically take them to the bank, saving you time and increasing employee efficiency.
When you receive a paper check payment from your customer, you will run the check through an electronic scanner system supplied by your merchant service provider like National Transaction Corporation (NTC). This virtual terminal captures the customer’s banking information and payment amount written on the check. The information is transferred electronically via the Federal Reserve Bank’s ACH Network, which takes the funds from your customer’s account and deposits them to yours.
Once the echeck has been processed and approved, the virtual terminal will instantly print a receipt for the customer to sign and keep. Employees should mark the paper check as “void” and return it to the customer. Your merchant transactions will be available online for viewing with customized detailed reporting, which may vary in features depending on the merchant service provider you choose.
Using electronic check conversion to process your customers’ payments holds many benefits over paper checks:
Benefits:
1. Received Funds Sooner. Businesses that use electronic check conversion have funds deposited almost twice as fast as those using the traditional check processing method, with billing companies often receiving payments within one day.
2. Reduced Fraud and Fewer Errors. Echecks are processed using an automated system, which cuts down the number of people who must handle the check, reducing the potential for error and fraud. Merchant service providers (NTC) also maintain, monitor, and check files against negative account databases that store information about individuals or companies that have past records of fraud to help decrease fraudulent activity.
3. Reduced Processing Costs. In general, the cost to process an echeck is substantially less than that of paper check processing or credit card transactions. Echecks require less manpower to process and eliminate incidental costs such as deposit and transaction fees that accompany paper checks. With Echecks, you can save up to 60% in processing fees.
4. Sales Increase. If your business didn’t accept paper checks in the past, you can expand the payment options available to your customers and increase sales by offering echecks. If you are converting from accepting paper checks to echecks, you can still expand your customer base by being able to accept international and
out-of-state checks without the worry of fraud. Echecks require account validation and customer authentication processes that identify bad checks within seconds.
5. Safe, Simple and Smart. Electronic check conversion is easy to set up and relies on the ACH Network for processing, the same reliable and trusted funds transfer system that handles Direct Deposit and Direct Payment. Plus, echecks are a smart choice for the environment, helping to reduce more than 67.4 million gallons of fuel used and 3.6 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions created by transporting paper checks.
Increase security with electronic checks – Electronic check conversion leverages the latest information protection features such as encryption and message authentication. Because of this, many retail merchants, merchant service providers, and financial institutions consider it to be one of the most secure payment methods in the electronic payment processing industry.
Authentication – Merchants must verify that the person providing the checking account information has the authority to use that checking account. There are a number of authentication services and products available to merchants, including:
Digital Signatures or Digital Certificates are a way of Encrypting information that gives the receiver a more reliable indication that the information was sent by the claimed sender. They are used by programs on the Internet to confirm the identity of a customer to concerned third parties, serving a similar purpose as a handwritten signature. Digital Signatures cannot be easily tampered with or imitated and are easily transportable, thereby making them a reliable method for verifying identity when implemented correctly. Digital Signatures are often used to implement Electronic Signatures, a broader term that refers to any Electronic Data that carries the intent of a signature.
Duplicate Detection and prevention is another way to reduce fraudulent activities. Financial institutions have software and operational controls in place to prevent duplication of the scanned electronic representations of customer checks.
Encryption The ACH Network automatically encrypts messages using 128-bit encryption and a secure sockets layer (SSL).
Public Key Cryptography is an Encryption/Decryption Security Method that uses one key to Encrypt a sent message and another to Decrypt it. With Electronic Check Conversion, the Private Key is a secret mathematical calculation used to create the digital signature on the Echeck, and the Public Key is the corresponding key given to anyone who needs to verify that the sender signed the echeck and that the electronic transfer has not been tampered with. Public Key Cryptography is another way to ensure authenticity of the Electronic Transfer of Funds.
What is the (ACH) Automated Clearing House Network?
The Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network is a funds distribution system that moves funds electronically from one entity to another. This highly reliable and efficient nationwide electronic network is governed by the rules established by the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) and the Federal Reserve (Fed). The ACH payment system also handles debit card transactions; direct deposits of payroll, Social Security, and other government benefits; direct debit payments; and business-to-business payments.
How to get started with Echeck:
Useful advice to help make the implementation of electronic check conversion at your business run smoothly:
Choose a processing company that is well established in the market. While a competitive pricing package may also be of importance, having a processor that is reliable with a good reputation is essential.
Look for a processor that enables you to easily align your current business processes with your new electronic processing system. Ensure that you can easily export customer data and smoothly integrate the electronic payment processing system with your business management software.
Notify your customers that your business will begin using electronic check conversion to process payments. Federal rules require you to post a notification about this change in practice as well as to give your customers a takeaway copy of the notification. You must also provide customers a telephone number to request more information about electronic check conversion.
Posted in Electronic Check Services, Electronic Payments, Financial Services Tagged with: ach, authentication, automated clearing house, bank, check, checks, conversion, deposited, digital, echeck, electronic, electronically, encryption, fees, in-store, market, merchant, merchant service provider, money, online, payments, process, Processing, reporting, scanner, Security, signature, submit, terminal, transactions, virtual
October 11th, 2013 by Elma Jane
(Moto) Mail Order/Telephone Order Merchant – In the realm of credit card processing is defined as a merchant who manually keys in over 50% of their transactions and an Internet Merchant is one who accepts transactions over the Internet via an E-Commerce store with an online gateway or who submits transactions manually through a Virtual Terminal.
Qualified Transaction Conditions (For MOTO/Internet merchants the Mid-Qualified Rate is essentially the Qualified rate as these merchants never swipe a credit card through a terminal.)
One electronic authorization request is made per transaction and the transaction date is equal to the shipping date. The authorization response data must also be included in the settled transaction.
Additional data (sales tax and customer code) is required in the settled transaction on all commercial (business) cards at non-Travel & Entertainment (T&E) locations.
The authorization request message must include Address Verification Service (AVS), which verifies the street address and the zip code of the card holder. NOTE: The only way this happens is if your software is set up to do this, or, if you are using a terminal, then if you capture the AVS information at the time of keying in your transaction.
The settled transaction amount must equal the authorized amount.
The settled transaction must include the business’s customer service telephone number, order number, and total authorized amount.
The transaction is electronically deposited (batch transmitted) on or 1 day after authorization date.
The transaction/shipping date must be within 7 calendar days of authorization date.
Non-Qualified Transaction Conditions
One or more of the Qualified or Partially Qualified conditions were not met.
Commercial Card without the additional data.
The transaction was not electronically authorized or the authorization response data was not included in the settled transaction.
The transaction was electronically deposited (batch transmitted) greater than 1 day from transaction/shipping/authorization date, or:
The VISA Infinite card was accepted.
Commercial Card Additional Data
MasterCard
Corporate Data Rate II (Purchasing cards): Sales Tax and customer Code (supplied by cardholder at point of sale) Corporate Data Rate II (Business and Corporate cards): Sales Tax International Corporate Purchasing Data Rate II: Sales Tax and Customer Code (supplied by cardholder at point of sale)
The following information must also be provided: Merchant’s Federal Tax ID; Merchant Incorporation Status; and Owner’s full name if the merchant is a sole proprietor.
Visa
Purchasing cards: Sales Tax and Customer Code (supplied by cardholder at point of sale) Corporate and Business cards: Sales Tax
Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mail Order Telephone Order Tagged with: address verification service, authorization, avs, batch, business, corporate, credit card processing, data, e-commerce, electronically, entertainment, fax order, gateway, internet, internet merchant, keying, mail order, moto, phone order, qualified, settle, store, telephone order, transactions, transmit, travel, virtual terminal
September 17th, 2013 by Admin
Payments
“Geofencing” a program that uses the global positioning system (GPS) or radio frequency identification (RFID) to define geographical bounderies. It creates the opportunities for new business models and generations. Allowing the use of mobile tools and services to not only interact with loyal customers, but also reach potentially new customers when they come into a geographic proximity, explained by a spokesperson from a Mobile and Wireless Group. So it does open the doors to some interesting new applications.
To date, radio positioning signals have been supplied to consumers primarily by the U.S. Military through a constellation called “GPS” or Global Positioning System. Essentially, receivers on the ground…. or in cars….interpret the signals and tell you roughly where you are.
Europe’s Galileo global satellite navigation system is expected to open up a variety of business opportunities. Big changes are in the air as a result of new more accurate systems on the way. One example: geofencing, a highly targeted form of tight, perimeter-based locating.
Galileo
A form of geofencing using the U.S. GPS is already used to monitor stolen vehicles, trucks and delivery drivers, among other things. GPS isn’t particularly accurate, though. With more accuracy, geofencing could be used to create a zone around a store or school, for example…or even a particular vending machine, in the world of commercial applications.
One of the new systems offering fresh potential in this area is Europe’s upcoming Global Satellite Navigation System, or GNSS, Known as Galileo.
“Global Applications”
Where Galileo gets particular interesting for us in the e-commerce world is that, buried deep in the European Space Agency’s promotional descriptions are some telling statements. For example, Galileo will offer a commercial service that will “allow global high-end and innovative applications” with accuracy down to a few centimeters.
For comparison , GPS maker Garmin says its latest GPS receivers are accurate to within 3 to 5 meters. Second, despite being a government project, Galileo will be under civilian control…not government control the way GPS is. It will be fully open to commercial applications. Then too, there’s aunthentication feature Galileo will include…an accurately timed, trusted location factor. The Galileo Commercial Service demonstrator will begin its proof of concept in 2014, with early service reckoned to start in 2016.
Possible Sensitive Transactions
Why do we care about all this? Simple: because of Geofencing.
Geofencing is currently used in mobile e-commerce to deliver ads and promotions based on a geographical region of interest. The GPS is used to define proximity so that an advertiser can know when you’re in the area.
Now add Galileo’s authentication to this mix, plus the microlocations obtainable with Galileo, and you’re in a defferent ballpark…almost literally. Sensitive transactions become possible, along with tracking to the millimeter… when you enter a building, go to the zoo or choose a concert seat. Turnstiles and the cost involved become redundant, for example.
Current location-based access control and payments solutions that use a GPS signal are authenticated through proprietary algorithms.
Security Improved
By virtue of its ability to enable transaction security and access control improvements, in fact, Galileo’s authentication feature will ultimately be perceived by industries such as banking to be a source of added value.
“For example, GNSS-based positioning and accurate timing could be integrated in the encryption algorithms to improve the security and payment process.
Location-based billing using existing GPS is already in use in limited areas including toll-road billing, and it’s being considered for parking as well. However, one of the big problems has been the availability of equipment that’s small enough and power-friendly enough to be practical.
The Technology on the ground…the device in our pocket, in other words…is a limiting factor. If you’ve ever tried to use your smartphone’s GPS chip for more than a few hours, you’ll know it kills the battery, even the the latest phones. Current vehicle geofencing trackers, meanwhile, are large, permanently mounted boxes. New chips will provide portability.
“This Previously Wasn’t Possible”
A mobile and wireless company, recently inroduced a battery-saving GNSS smartphone location chip with Geofence capabilities. The company’s BCM47521 chip lets an application receive an alert when a user enters or exits a virtual perimeter, and uses the current GPS, GLONASS, QZSS and SBAS constellations…all at the same time.
What is unique about this technology is that it’s able to monitor the user’s location as a background task, consuming less power. “This previously wasn’t possible, as the process of continually monitoring for a geofence would rapidly drain a mobile device’s battery”.
Near Field Communications radio standards can be used for the secure payment element, and the more widespread adoption of NFC for mobile payments will also generally help drive adoption of location-based payments.
“Geofencing creates the opportunities for new business models, allowing the use of mobile tools and services to not onl interact with loyal customers but also reach potentially new customers hen they come into a geogrphic proximity.” “So it does open the doors to some interesting new applications.”
“Security and Privacy Crucial”
A networking and connectivity subsidiary is also working on positioning. It’s IZ at location platform is geared towards precise indoor positioning for public places and provides 3- to 5-meter positioning inside.
GNSS will help enable location-based payments, but it’s not everything. “There will certainly be other augmentation technologies that will help to increase the propagation of this in the market. “Security and privacy will also be crucial to acceptance.”
Indeed today, the tested indoor services need to rely on antennas installed outside the target buildings to reproduce the GNSS signal. This requirement causes additional costs, challenging the economic viability of GNSS-based positioning as a means to reinforce the security of access and transactions. Add in the vast amounts of data gained by tracking user movements down to the centimeter, and you’ve got a whole other can of worms.
Posted in Credit Card Security, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: Geofencing, GPS, payments, privacy, RFID, Satellite, Security, technology, transactions
September 10th, 2013 by Admin
Verizon annually releases it’s Data Breach Investigation Reports which probes data breaches in various industries and studies the nature of fraud reported by merchants and other agencies. In the past Verizon has worked with the U.S. Secret Service, now the information gathered on the electronic payment breaches have expanded to Police Central e-Crime Unit, Australian Federal Police, the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, and the Irish Reporting & Information Security Service in addition to the United States Secret Service.
One area that Verizon broke out and performed independent studies on was the healthcare industry. In 2010 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HI TECH) Act included a provision to report healthcare and medical data breaches to a variety of outlets including the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Medical record protections keep the casual cyber criminal at bay but the majority of security data breaches are in large part targeted at information attackers can profit from. The data cybercriminals target most often includes health insurance data, personal and electronic payment transaction data. Hardware is another assett that is targeted both because of the data on the hardware and the cost of the hardware itself.
Remote data breaches on health care providers were typically carried out through some form of hacking or malware. That is consistent with other industries in the report and is considered the favorites among cybercriminal organizations. Exploiting of default or guessable credentials rang in at the top of the chart. Of those, point of sale payment systems and desktop computers were the highest targeted areas of the health care industry. Although electronic medical records and transcriptions stored on file and database servers were a target, those criminals were more likely interested in indentity theft and fraudulent loans than what was actually in any individuals medical records.
Point of sale payment terminals are the most targeted assett with POS servers and gateways as the second most targeted. Like all other sectors, professional criminals tend to follow the money trail and that ends up being at POS payment systems. So much so that even desktop computers and emails try to get malware onto medical systems to render security policies inneffective. To find out how to better protect medical and healthcare records from cybercriminals and data breaches read the reports here and here.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit Card Security, Point of Sale Tagged with: Breach, breaches, electronic payment, gateways, healthcare, medical, point of sale, POS, Security, transactions, transcription
China
People’s Online Daily is reporting that online electronic payment transactions carried out on Chinese mobile payment providers is expected to be above 9 Trillion yuan, which is $1.45 Trillion in U.S. Currency. China’s mobile electronic payments in 2012 were at 800 billion yuan. That sets an increase in mobile payments made on smartphones and tablets at 265% over the previous year. With more and more Chinese citizens coming online analysts say that the steady growth in the mobile payment landscape is expected to continue to rise well into 2020. Last year, mobile electronic payment transactions rose 66% to nearly 3.7 trillion yuan. Read more of this article »
Posted in Mobile Payments Tagged with: China, Digital Wallet, electronic payments, Illinois, India, mobile payment, mobile wallet, Processing, transactions
