The National Retail Federation and security analysts are urging merchants and consumers to remain vigilant during the high-peak shopping season, noting that high-volume sales may provide additional opportunities for cybercriminals to attack vulnerable POS infrastructures. Among the chief concerns is the notion that retailers that have upgraded Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) payment systems have [...]

Aspate of litigious activities against payment card pricing models underscores deepening hostilities among regulatory agencies, retailers and payment card brands. In 2014, the United States Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general successfully challenged American Express Co.'s pricing and acceptance policies. The lawsuit accused AmEx of setting prices too high and prohibiting enrolled merchants [...]

The United States is now a few steps closer to hosting 21st century payment systems. The Clearing House, a payment company that operates the nation’s only private sector automated clearing house (ACH) network, just named two partners in an ambitious plan to create a real-time system that accommodates both consumer and business payments. VodaLink Ltd. [...]

Should Merchants Become EMV Compliant? Absolutely!! The issuing bank, your acquirer and your payment processor have all migrated to EMV. Here’s what happens when you don’t have an EMV-capable terminal or POS Systems in the post-EMV era: A patron uses a magnetic-stripe card at your business to buy $200 worth of goods. Upon reconciling your [...]

81% of breach victims didn't know they were compromised until someone else told them.1 Cyber attackers are targeting businesses because the sensitive data that they process is highly valuable. It’s happening to every kind of business: large and small, online, storefront and even home-based. The threat is real, and cyber criminals are more resourceful than [...]

A countertop device used to scan and recover information contained in magnetic ink characters printed on checks and documents. The magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line, usually printed at the bottom of a check, is a sequence of digits that provides details about the bank and account on which the check is drawn. The MICR line supports authorization and clearing routines.

Google Inc. officially embarked on its rollout of Android Pay starting Sept. 10, 2015. The new app will enable Android phone users to make payments at more than 1 million near field communication- (NFC) equipped U.S. locations, the company stated. At launch time, Android Pay supported all four major card network-branded credit and debit cards, and was aligned with most major U.S. banks and credit unions, as well as popular nationwide franchises.

According to Google, Android Pay was built as an open platform, meaning users can activate the service through Google

The acquiring bank’s fee; it is equal to interchange (which is paid to the issuing bank) plus the acquiring bank’s markup. Think of it as the wholesale price of a transaction to which processing and other fees are added to come up with the cost to a merchant. Buy rates have not been widely used since the multitude of interchange rates came into being; many ISOs and acquirers now use pricing models that involve splits of net revenue.

A group of people interested in advancing a given area of knowledge, technology or culture. SIGs function cooperatively and are solutions oriented. Members share ideas and may hold meetings and organize conferences. Some SIGs are also advocacy groups (political groups, for example) in which members have a common objective or agenda. SIGs formed by the PCI SSC provide an opportunity for member organizations and individual council members to share their business and technical expertise in the global effort to apply the PCI DSS and related standards to specific industries or

The latest big breach apparently occurred at the nonprofit retail thrift store operator Goodwill Industries International Inc. The culprit: a new strain of malware called Backoff. The breach, which came to light July 21, 2014, is part of a seemingly ever more frequent occurrence of compromises at national retailers. But if the mainstream media and consumers are adopting a complacent, “oh, another breach” mentality, security experts and the business community remain deadly serious about securing networks and mitigating attacks.

Once again, security investigative reporter Brian Krebs broke the story of the