Credit Card Data Breaches - EMV - Merchant Services
As a business owner, have you heard the terminology, EMV? Or even you will likely hear it soon as the spring influx of new merchant services reps hit the road and come knocking on your own door. The purpose of this informative article is to bring you information on this technology so that you are along with your game.
As defined by Wikipedia, EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, a worldwide standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards (IC cards or "chip cards") and IC card capable Point of Sale (POS) terminals and automated teller machines (ATM's) for authenticating credit and debit card transactions. EMV is a joint effort with the three entities to ensure the security and global interoperability of chip-based payment cards.
OK, so now guess what happens it's but what effect is there for you and your company? Certainly you're alert to the huge data breach at Target during the vacation shopping season. And maybe, to an inferior extent, you have heard of the Neiman Marcus data breach as well that dates back as far as July of 2013. Estimates indicate that at the very least 110 million consumers were affected by these hacks. Obviously, simply because of the sheer size of the data breaches and the businesses involved, it made headline news. However, I'll bet that you weren't aware your business is more vulnerable to being hacked than these large business entities. A current study conducted by Trustwave revealed that 92% of data compromises originated with level 4 merchants. Level 4 merchants are the ones that process under 1,000,000 transactions per year and have fewer than 20,000 eCommerce transactions annually. I would venture a reckon that since you're reading this informative article, this describes your business.
Data security is an essential topic that you absolutely need to keep yourself informed of and do all you can to protect your visitors information. Consider the chance to your company if a compromise occurs:
Potential loss of customers
Loss in reputation
Liabilities from bank fines
Potential litigation
Card association fines and penalties
Inability to just accept future credit card payments
Lost merchandise because of fraud
For certain, you'll and do need to make sure that you will be fully compliant, currently, with PCI/DSS standards. And, eventually, you will need to adopt EMV technology in your business. But here's my word of caution for you: as of today, the mandate for the implementation of EMV equipped terminals in your company is October of 2015. However, you can have reps coming throughout your door wanting to tell you that this really is an urgent matter and needs to be addressed immediately or "you will undoubtedly be at an increased risk ".Don't fall because of it!!! Certainly, eventually you will need to adopt this new EMV technology into your company and there would have been a cost (i.e. new EMV POS terminals). The benefits are great because since when you're fully compliant, fraud risk shifts to the your merchant services provider.
So, in closing just know that increased data security and standards are valuable discussions to own with both your current provider and any processor wanting to attract your business. As the "deadline" for implementation approaches, don't be surprised when it gets pushed back again. The US is one of the few remaining markets that doesn't use chip and pin technology for point-of-sale transactions. It is a major task and expensive proposition for banks (issuing expensive new chip embedded cards) and merchants (replacing all their terminals) but, it's coming. Watch for future article on this topic as I strive to stop you informed.
My name is Michael Saum and I'm a 65 year old semi-retired, merchant services rep with nearly two decades in the industry. Within my current capacity, I write informative, articles relative to the acceptance of credit/debit cards, manage my website and share profitable marketing ideas for the business. I also provide my comprehensive, FREE, email course, on the subject of credit card processing fe-acc18 with NO SOLICITATION or HYPE. You can enroll by visiting the next website