Payment Processing Breaches: What Can You Do to Protect Your Information?

Payment Processing Breaches:  What Can You Do to Protect Your Information?

Credit-card fraudsters are everywhere these days, but when it comes to targeting victims, they have a special fondness for Americans.  Just look at the latest breaches that occurred at about 40 zoos – Service Systems Associates, a company that serves gift shops and eateries at zoos and cultural centers across the United States, acknowledged earlier this month that they incurred a breach of its credit and debit card processing systems.

Who will be next?  We’ve already heard about Target and Home Depot and in May, we discovered that there were significant issues at bars and restaurants across the country with their Point of Sale systems.  And now patrons of zoos across the United States are worried that their information has been compromised.  Why is this issue so prevalent and what can we do to protect ourselves?

Nearly half of all the credit card fraud around the world occurs in the US, even though America accounts for only about a quarter of the global card volume.

The increasing instances of credit-card fraud—and the subsequent hassles, like not being able to use our credit cards or having to replace them more often—are mostly due to the fact that the US still relies on old, faulty technology that the rest of the world moved on from years ago.

As I’ve noted in previous blogs, in the US, credit cards still transmit financial information through a magnetic stripe that is easy to replicate if stolen. Hackers also can remotely install malicious software onto checkout terminals at retail stores to capture credit-card numbers. The data gets transmitted to the cyber criminals, who then sell the information to the highest bidder.

These tactics don’t work as well in the rest of the world, where most credit cards are now embedded with little chips (often referred to as EMV, for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa) that are more secure because they randomly assign a number to each transaction that changes each time customers use their credit card. Users must also input a personal identification number to verify each purchase.

The technology is not totally bulletproof (paywall) and other problems exist that lead to credit card fraud. But it’s pretty telling that the adoption of EMV chip-and-pin technology in the UK, which began in 2003, has led to a 70% reduction in counterfeit fraud in the UK over the past decade.

The rest of Europe (which now has an 81% adoption rate of the new cards) and countries like Australia and Russia have followed suit. But the US, plagued by fierce battles between credit card companies and retailers, have been slow to adopt the chip-and-pin technology.

Naturally, fraudsters have focused their attention on the US, where it’s just easier to hack into retailers’ checkout terminals and steal millions of their customers’ personal information.

But, there is good news.

The US is finally joining the rest of the world in its move to chip and pin technology. By the end of this year, retailers will be required by credit card companies to have upgraded their checkout terminals to accept the new cards—or bear the liability for fraudulent card transactions.

But just about any retail checkout clerk in the US will tell you that most people aren’t using the new cards yet, which means fraudsters still have some time left before they’re going to lose easy pickings from the US.

So what can you do?  For breaches that happen at large retailers on a grander scale, your credit card company or a third party company in charge of payment processing are responsible and are insured to make sure you are protected.  But, what about a personal theft or credit card fraud?

Right now, credit card information is easy to obtain by hackers, making it easy for them to open a new line of credit.  So, protect yourself.

1. Protect Your Personal Information
2. Shred Everything
3. Use a Secured Mailbox
4. Have Your Bills Sent to You Electronically
5. Pay Your Bills Electronically
6. Create Strong Passwords and Keep Them Safe
7. Protect Your PIN numbers
8. Watch What You Say on Your Cell Phone
9. Check Your Credit History and Score Regularly
10. Take Action

Remember, you can take action to protect yourself from identity theft and credit card theft by using the tips above. You may think you have better or more important things to do than stay on top of your personal information, but taking the time to protect yourself will save you time and money in the future. And you can go to bed at night feeling more secure – physically and financially.


If you have questions about the services Chosen Payments provides or you have a topic you would like to see covered in my blog, feel free to reach out! 

Zach Allen Regional Vice President at Chosen Payments
Credit Card Processing | ACH | Gift/ Loyalty Cards | Mobile & Ecommerce Payments | ATM
Toll Free: 1.855.424.6736 x. 116
zach.allen@chosenpayments.com  |  www.ChosenPayments.com 
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