Items tagged with Credit Card
There has been a big debate since the end of World War II regarding whether human beings should use the research and technology developed by the Nazis. Do we get rid of something that is useful or life-saving if someone bad created it? The United Kingdom is taking a chance -- WWII Nazi encryption technology will likely be used to create more secure credit cards. A plugboard positioned in front of an "Enigma" machine. During WWII, the Germans used enigma machines to generate new cyphers or codes that could be used to encrypt and decrypt military messages. The Allied forces were greatly irritated by these machines. The cyphers were generated at such a rapid pace that as soon as the Allied...
Read more...
The last holdout among the four major U.S. credit card issuers has finally caved to Apple. Discover announced today that it will allow its cardmembers to make wireless payments using Apple Pay on their iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and Apple Watch starting this fall. Visa, MasterCard, and American Express have supported Apple Pay since it launched in October 2014, so it’s nice to see Discover finally getting onboard, even if it’s going to be a year late. “As the mobile payments landscape matures, Discover remains committed to giving cardmembers secure options for using their cards and mobile devices,” said Discover President of Payment Services Diane Offereins. “Discover’s focus on simplicity and...
Read more...
While the concept of simply waving a credit card in front of a machine for quick and easy use is an appealing one, the issue of security tends to come up. After all, such methods bypass the need for a PIN, making it easier for someone to steal the card and simply use it. But MasterCard, in partnership with Swipe, have announced a new credit card that is the world’s first fingerprint authenticated contactless payment card. It is called the Zwipe Mastercard payment card and it features an integrated biometric sensor, combined with Zwipe’s biometric authentication technology, which also stores a person’s biometric data. To make a contactless purchase, the consumer needs to have...
Read more...
MasterCard is launching a new high tech card in Singapore that features an LCD display and a built-in keyboard. The card looks and functions just like a regular credit card but with the addition of the LCD screen and touch-sensitive buttons. MasterCard calls it Display Card technology. There are a number of banks and sites that require users to use a small security device to generate a one-time security key in order to log in to the site. While this provides for additional security, many users find security tokens such as these to be cumbersome since they have to carry an additional deivce in order to log in to their bank account. This new card could replace the small security devices by having...
Read more...
As you head into the weekend getting ready to party and celebrate the end of another long and grueling work week, take some time to keep tabs on your MasterCard and Visa accounts. If you don't, you could be in for a rude awakening when you go to pay for drinks and find out that your card has been declined. At issue here is a what's being described as a "massive" data breach at a U.S.-based credit card processor, according to KrebsOnSecurity.com.Visa and MasterCard have both been sending out non-public alerts giving banks a heads up that specific cards -- possibly more than 10 million -- may have been compromised recently. Image Source: Flickr (philcampbell) A spokesman for MasterCard told The...
Read more...
It's Girl Scout Cookie time again. This time around however, some Girl Scouts in San Diego have a new trick up their sleeves. No longer will the excuse that you don't have any cash give you an out for not buying cookies. It seems everyone carries a credit card these days, so a sampling of Girl Scout troops in San Diego are planning to use a mobile payment solution to enable them to accept all major credit cards at select cookie booths. To enable these mobile credit card payments, the Girl Scouts will be using iPhones with the morphine marketplace credit card case. Payment will be processed through Intuit's GoPayment application and customers will sign a receipt via the touch screen. In case you...
Read more...
Need another credit card? We kid. But if you're a Citi Card holder, you may get an upgraded card in the future. Dynamics Inc., described as an innovator in next-generation payment devices, has just revealed their Redemption payment device. Basically, it's a credit card with built in buttons, LEDs and a selector switch. Why all the fancy additions? Because of Payments 2.0, an application that allows users to select points or cash before checking out. The idea is simple: today, every credit card swipe means that you're paying cash (eventually) for whatever you buy. With this card, there are two options that can be selected: pay with cash or put their points towards the purchase. Today, if you rack...
Read more...
Wal-Mart tried the "self-checkout" thing for awhile, and those kiosks still exist in some stores. But by and large, it's easier for most consumers to just head to a real person in case of trouble. But that snafu isn't stopping the world's most recognized retailer from starting something else: smartcard payment support. According to a new report, the giant is planning to make every last one of their payment terminals in the U.S. compliant with "a smartcard-based credit card technology that is widely used around the world but isn't common in the U.S." The plans were unveiling at a smartcard conference held last week, with Storefront Backtalk quoting Jamie Henry, Wal-Mart's director of payment services,...
Read more...
On what many Americans consider a day of change, here we go again with more of the same: a massive data breach involving Heartland Payment Systems, a credit card payment processor, that was announced on Tuesday. First, the good news: no merchant data or cardholder Social Security numbers, unencrypted personal identification numbers (PIN), addresses or telephone numbers were involved in the breach. Neither was any check processing data. Now for the bad news: since they were alerted to suspicious activity by Visa and MasterCard, tens of millions of credit and debit card numbers or transactions may have been affected. Wonderful. In a press release Robert H.B. Baldwin, Jr., Heartland's president...
Read more...
GE Money misplaced a backup tape with about 650,000 customer's personal credit information. There are two additional facts that make this particularly noteworthy.First is that GE Money handles the credit information of more than 100 retailers including JC Penney. Without knowing the names of the other retailers, it isn't possible to really say exactly who else may be impacted directly by this loss.The second is that the data loss was discovered in October!“The information was on a backup computer tape that was discovered missing last October. It was being stored at a warehouse run by Iron Mountain Inc., a data storage company, and was never checked out but can't be found either, said...
Read more...
If somebody stole your credit card information and intends to use it online, it’s not all bad news. You could end up with a very small tax-deduction, or at least that’s what Symantec is claiming.The latest trend for people who steal credit card information (carders) is that they test the stolen information by making small donations. Whether or not this will save them a few years when they get sentenced is unknown, but it does seem that they may have found a way around all those algorithms that determine what is and isn’t a “normal purchase” for a cardholder. After all, not many people donate to charity on the same frequency they shop for clothes, food, gas, and so on. “Carders attempting...
Read more...
Smaller, faster, better, that's the way of the world when it comes to Semiconductors and Consumer Electronics. The Inq has a bit of detail on a Wireless client that fits in the palm of your hand. "ISRAELI COMPANY Compulab recently announced a computer that manages to cram a complete PDA into a device two-thirds the size of a credit card. The CM-X270L measures just 4.4 x 6.6 cm. In comparison, a MiniPCI wireless card is 6.0 x 4.4 cm - just half a centimetre thinner. In this space, the CM-X270L somehow manages fits in an Intel (should that be Marvell?) XScale chip running Windows CE or Linux, half a gig of flash, 128MB of RAM, AC'97 sound and a Philips 802.11b wireless interface,...
Read more...
