When this post first appeared last summer, we called it “The Breach Days of August,” sounding various alarums from what had been the just concluded Black Hat conference in Las Vegas (a gathering of mostly “white hat” hackers). In what surely now must strike us a more innocent times, we mentioned
that CNN Money was reporting that EMV chip cards — the very things allegedly keeping us safer at point of purchase could perhaps be rewritten to “appear like a chipless card again. This allows them to keep counterfeiting — just like they did before the nationwide switch to chip cards.”
Category: credit card security
September of Our Year: EMVs Delayed, Storms Felt (updated)
In last fall’s Labor Day survey, we wrote that the unspoken rule was to put white clothing away until Memorial Day rolled around again, but that would seem to apply mostly to cool-weather climates, of which there are fewer and fewer, at least in the American west, where AVPS is headquartered.
How To Prevent Financial Risks When Traveling Or Shopping
We are deep in the heart of the summer travel and shopping seasons, which means more of us are getting out, getting on the road, and exploring new places. Tourism and travel help boost our economy, and promote prosperity among many communities across the nation. However, this time of year also creates serious dangers when it comes to the safety and security of your financial information. The last thing you need is to go out of town, only to get stranded because some enterprising thief or hacker managed to steal your credit or banking information.
How Portable Preparing Empowers Imaginative Business
For years, places like farmers markets, food trucks, sports concessions and a slew of others all operated on a cash-only basis, which in turn, limited their customer base. Those days are fading fast. Now mobile phone credit card readers ensure that customers can pay any way and at any time.
Credit Card Processing Risk Management Solutions
With summer only a couple of months away, now is a good time for seasonal or tourism-oriented businesses to give additional thought to secure payment processing. This hectic season brings an opportunity for profit and brand-building, but it also entices word-be thieves to take advantage of the growing crowds.What makes seasonal businesses so attractive when it comes to card skimming, cloning, and the use of counterfeit credit and debit cards?
Fraud Prevention. Why This Issue Affects All of Us
The issue of secure payment processing is obviously a longstanding battle between banking institutions and thieves, but this is a problem that affects both business owners and customers as well. We often think of the effects of fraud on a singular level—how it affects us. However, with thieves and hackers always on the cutting edge of innovation, we all must band together to combat this pressing problem
Hacks Happening! But AVPS and SID Can Help!
We knew we’d have some “breachy” news to report this month — we always do — but little did we know how much! For starters, just up the boulevard from AVPS, L.A. Valley College decided to pay out $28,000 in BitCoin for a New Year’s Eve attack where ransomware captured their computers, or more specifically, the files on them.
Happy New Year! And In A Time of Breaches, “SID” Is Coming!
Of course, just because the calendar changes, that doesn’t mean the issues, ideas, and economic trends of the previous year suddenly “go away” either. Foremost among those, and something we report on often in this space, are breaches, “hacks,” and the latest frontier of data security — an area that seems like it will only get more “parlous” for those trying to safeguard sensitive,personal data, whether their own, their customers’, or both.
The Christmas Economy’s Home Stretch — and One More Big Hack
Normally we like the holiday weeks to have more “genteel” posts, with a little holiday history, and some prognostications for the current economy and the new year.
Well, okay, sometimes those prognostications aren’t necessarily “genteel,” given that the future can be a murky place, but all in all, we like to infuse some sense of “seasonal lights” into our updates.
Credit Card Processing Risk Management Solutions
As we head into the throes of the holiday season, you are preparing your business for the current influx of customers. You’re focused on inventory, logistics, customer service and maybe even extending your business hours to accommodate the growing crowds. However, for thieves and hackers around the country, this season also represents one of the easiest times to take advantage of your distracted state. Where you see
profit potential, they see the perfect opportunity to take money away from you and your customers and put it in their own pockets.
