As you know from being a savvy/frequent readers of these posts, the world of payments shares a critical motif with life itself: Change is the only constant.
And by “change,” we don’t mean those coins in your pocket, left over from the last time you used cash. No, we’re talking about how the way payments are made is shifting, faster and faster — bringing along the need for constantly-changing security, as well.
The Fed has just been in the news, announcing they will be bringing more change to the payment arena. The want to “speed up and further secure the U.S. payments system, which includes everything from checks to credit-card payments to online transactions, saying the infrastructure is fragmented and out of date,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
But they can’t do it all themselves. The Fed, having “limited authority over the broader payment system, called on private-sector firms to participate in task forces to coordinate efforts.
It also promised to speed up its own service for settling payments by slightly extending its hour of operation later this year and working to make it a 24-hour-a-day service over time.”
Of course, the private sector has already been changing payments exponentially, especially in the area of “virtual wallets,” like Google Wallet, and Apple Pay. However, the Cult of Mac website — which, from its name, can be deduced to be pro-Apple — reports that “Apple Pay actually makes it really easy to commit credit card fraud.”
The problem, they say, has “nothing to do with Touch ID, NFC, Apple’s secure element, or stolen iPhones. All of that is locked down as tightly as Apple advertised. The problem, according to an unconfirmed report from DropLabs, is that Apple Pay is so easy to use, fraudsters don’t even have to create a physical fake card anymore.”
Evidently, hackers are simply “buying stolen consumer identities, complete with credit card info, and loading that into Apple Pay. This allows them to create a fake digital credit card without going through the hassle of printing it out on plastic to use in stores.”
According to the article, the crux is that “banks aren’t taking all the necessary measures to ensure the actual credit card owner is the one using the credit card on Apple Pay. (But) banks have the choice to authenticate Apple Pay cards with a two-factor code sent to the owner’s phone number.”
And of course, two-step authentication will become increasingly prevalent as EMV cards are introduced to America.
All of it speaks to the one “constant” being an ongoing need for security, no matter how your customers are paying.
AVPS works with iSpy Fraud to help protect your data, and your customers. iSpy lets merchants set up extensive filtering to detect fraud, and to screen out suspicious transactions, credit card numbers, etc. Transactions can even be declined after authorization, if something is amiss.
Limits can be set for amounts charged in single transactions, over specified periods of time. Such limits can be applied to specific credit card numbers, and/or IP addresses. All of this helps reduce the number of chargebacks.
And, of course, helps keep your business out of the headlines, when the next breach is reported!
For more information on how iSpy can help protect your business, contact your AVPS Rep today. That’s another “constant,” too: No matter how fast the world of payments changes, we’re still here to help.
