He questions whether there's such a thing as "acceptable fraud losses" amidst the rising tide of criminal activity associated with "magstripe" cards.

Here's what Mr. Beverly has to say:  He starts us out with some some interesting statistics from 2008:

• The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as nine million Americans have their identities stolen each year.
• The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse estimates 245 million records have been compromised due to security breaches since January 2005.
• The sting operation by security software provider Symantec showed stolen credit card accounts are sold like commodities online, at a quantity discount of one dollar if you buy 100 or more. These are for full packages with name and address, card expirations and CVV2 security numbers.
• Gemalto’s own “Digital Trust Barometer” survey showed 57% of Americans are afraid someone will steal account passwords when banking online, 38% do not trust online payments, 74% are afraid of identity theft and 44% are afraid of online bank account hijacking.

I think it’s time executives in financial services; retail and online services start questioning a well-worn mantra that fraud losses are an acceptable cost of business.

When fraud and fear are undermining consumer confidence in e-commerce, as it is today, at some point that logic becomes bad business.  (continue reading at Contactless News)

Editor's Note:  I agree and the same "well-worn mantra" is hurting consumers as much, if not more, than it's hurting etailers.  (The only winner's here are Visa/MC and the banks who profit more from an unsecure transaction because of the higher interchange fees that come with them. )

Starting an EMV initiative here in the US would take years and cost billions.  Starting an Internet PIN debit initiative would take months and save millions.  What's unacceptable  is online debit for online shopping.  Fraud losses can be significantly reduced by making PIN based transactions "acceptable."