There’s no vaccine against card datasecurity breaches in the United States, and the prognosis for thispersisting ailment shows there is no fast cure, according to a recentreport, which also said it would cost an estimated $100 billion to fixcard security in the U.S.
According to the report, "Merchants are in the most vulnerable position in the card data securityrealm and malware, counterfeit card fraud and card-not-present fraudcurrently top the list of threats. Of even more concern, card securitymay never be fixed, as criminals will always seek new ways to commitfraud."
That’s according to a new report released by research and advisory firmAite Group. The report, “Card Data Security: In Search of a Technology Solution,” which is based on survey responses from 29 individuals (mostof whom head up risk managment for North American issuing banks orpayment processors), focused on what the respondents thought weretoday’s biggest card security problems, the responsibilities ofstakeholders and possible card security solutions.
What did surveyors find as the most viable remedies for card securityissues? One promising solution, a shift from magnetic stripe cards toEMV architecture (the use of smart cards), may never come to fruition.The report stated that a decision to make the use of smart cards astandard practice is five to seven years away–or may never take placeat all.
“With the deeply entrenched magnetic stripe infrastructure in theUnited States, and the cost and effort involved in transitioningstakeholders to chip and PIN infrastructure, this may be the case,”Aite Group’s Nick Holland said of the survey participants’ predictionsthat standardized EMV architecture may never be a reality in the U.S.
However, out of the three biggest threats to card security–malware,counterfeit card fraud and CNP fraud–counterfeit card fraud is the onlyproblem that an EMV architecture shift could solve. There are otherpromising solutions to all three problem areas, the report said.
End-to-end encryption of the card network, stricter policy enforcementsand process improvements, neural network monitoring and magnetic stripefingerprinting are all viewed to have a significant impact on cardfraud prevention. Overall, it’s the technological advances, such asdata loss prevention technologies, that are expected to make the mostpositive changes in the card data security landscape, Holland said.
