PINcept.com: March 2009

Don't Regulate Credit Card Rates, Visa Chief Says

Government regulation would hurt consumers by limiting competition, Canadian chief warnsMar 31, 2009 Dana Flavelle - Business reporterThe head of Visa Canada chose a Toronto business audience to test the sales pitch he plans to deliver to Ottawa: Don't regulate the debit and credit card industry.But the message fell, at least partly, on deaf ears.While acknowledging that growing complaints about the industry have led to a Competition Bureau...

Posted by John B. Frank Tuesday, March 31, 2009 0 comments

PCI Compliance FAQ

PCI Compliance: Frequently Asked Questionsby Practical eCommerce StaffPayment card industry compliance is confusing for many ecommerce merchants. But it potentially affects every merchant that accepts credit card payments. Failure to understand the PCI compliance standards could result in higher merchant account fees and fines from the credit card issuers.Merchants oftentimes have similar general questions on PCI compliance. We posed some...

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Lack of Credit Card Security When Booking Hotels Online

From Travel-Rants.comLack of credit card security when booking hotels online - Travel-Rants.comThere are consumers that do not feel comfortable entering their credit card online when making a reservation at a hotel, and I can understand that. I am not one of those consumers though and I trust that when I enter my credit card details they are going to be sent to the hotel securely.Lack of credit and debit card security when booking hotels...

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Fitch Downgrades First Data's IDR to "B"

Press Release: NEW YORK - (Business Wire) Fitch Ratings has downgraded the following ratings for First Data Corp. (FDC):Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'B' from 'B+';$2 billion senior secured revolving credit facility due 2013 to 'BB-/RR2' from 'BB/RR2';$13 billion senior secured term loan B due 2014 to 'BB-/RR2' from 'BB/RR2';$3.75 billion 9.875% senior unsecured notes due 2015 to 'CCC/RR6' from 'B-/RR6';$3 billion 10.55% senior...

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Visa "Says it Applauds" Measures to Combat Identity Theft...

Visa applauds Government of Canada measures to combat identity theftFederal government action an important step in fight against fraudTORONTO, March 31 /CNW/ - Visa Canada today announced its support for the government's new legislation, which will provide greater protection for all Canadians as it makes identity theft a defined offense under the Canadian Criminal Code."As a leader in secure payment technology, Visa takes security and the...

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Interac "Greatly Concerned" About PIN Debit Breach!

Attention News Editors:Interac Association Supports Proposed Legislation to Help Combat Identity TheftOTTAWA, March 31 /CNW/ - Interac Association joined federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson today as he announced legislation to help combat identity theft and applauds the federal government's action. Identity theft, the theft of personal information, can lead to a variety of crimes that significantly impact consumers, business and government,...

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Does PCI DSS Reduce Cybercrime? Committee on Homeland Security

“Do the Payment Card Industry Data Standards Reduce Cybercrime?” Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology Tuesday, March 31, 20092:00 p.m. in 311 Cannon House Office BuildingSubcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and TechnologyHearing“Do the Payment Card Industry Data Standards Reduce Cybercrime?” PANEL IMs. Rita GlavinActing...

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Cards and Payments Europe Conference 2009

Cards and Payments Europe 200918 – 19 June 2009Conference, Expo & AwardsHow to maintain profitability and achieve excellence in emerging marketsJoin us this year at Europe's leading Cards and Payments Conference and Expo in Prague, 18-19 June 2008.Event SummaryCards & Payments Europe 2009 will focus on emerging markets within Central and Eastern Europe.Central & Eastern Europe is experiencing rapid movement from emerging market...

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On PCI DSS Compliance

Data security best practices for PCI DSS complianceDavid Mortman, Contributor 03.31.2009PCI is not perfect, but the point isn't perfection.Every time a company that is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is breached, the masses form with their torches and pitchforks and declare that PCI doesn't work. This was the case with two recent high-profile data breaches: the March 2008 Hannaford Bros. Co. data...

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V/MC to Raise Processing Fees - CSN

Visa, MasterCard Plan Processing Fee HikesWASHINGTON -- New transaction fee rate increases announced by credit card companies Visa and MasterCard are slightly under 2 cents per affected transaction, yet are expected to raise more than $600 million in revenues, according to a report by DigitalTransactions.comMasterCard will increase its "Network Access and Brand Usage Fee" April 17, from 0.5 cents per transaction to 1.85 cents—a 270 percent...

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Fraud Fingers CNP Transactions

Surprise, surprise - card fraud continues to growTuesday March 31st 2009It is always interesting to check out the latest annual fraud figures from APACS as they continue to show how ineffective and poor value for money chip and PIN has been.By Glynn DavisWhile it has helped reduce fraudulent activity in-store this has been at the cost of rocketing criminal activity within the area of card not present (CNP), which involves all transactions...

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From a Fellow Blogger...

4 ways on how to hack myspace account / profile password |TECHOTIPSby Rajesh Chaukwale In my previous articles, i mentioned about software to hack msn. I was asked by many of readers about methods to hack myspace account passwords. So, i have written this myspace hacking article which informs about methods used to hack myspace profile / account password. Hacking myspace account is illegal. So, this article on how to hack myspace account...

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This is So Scary "It's Frustrating"...Too!

From PC WorldThe high-profile disclosure over the weekend of the GhostNet cyberespionage ring that targeted 1295 computers in more than 100 countries underscores howhighly targeted and sophisticated attacks, often run by criminals, arechanging the security landscape, according to a security researcher atSymantec. "How much is the (security) landscape changing? It's changingdrastically," said Joe Pasqua, vice president of research at SymantecResearch...

Posted by John B. Frank Monday, March 30, 2009 0 comments

GhostNet is Scary

Vast Computer Spy Network Found: ReportBy Reuters 2009-03-30Embassies, foreign ministries, government offices and the Dalai Lama's Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York were among those infiltrated, said the researchers, who have detected computer espionage in the past.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canadian researchers have uncovered a vast electronic spying operation that infiltrated computers and stole documents from...

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Congress Asked to Lower Credit Card Fees

Retailers ask Congress to lower credit-card fees - NJBIZ.comA coalition of retailers today launched a campaign to lobby Congress to require credit card companies to negotiate with retailers in an effort to lower the “interchange” fee, averaging 2 percent, that retailers pay on each credit card transaction.The Merchants Payments Coalition launched the campaign this morning during a telephone press conference with representatives of the National...

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70% of The Writing is On the Wall

Payments Fraud Knows No Bounds Bank Technology News | April 2009 by John AdamsIt doesn’t matter whether the news is good or bad—fraudsters see the glass as completely full.Accordingto the 2009 Association of Financial Professionals Payments and FraudControl Survey, the growth of electronic payments and the deterioratingfinancial conditions caused by the recession have both...

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MasterCard Introduces PayPass Mobile Stickers

Finextra: MasterCard introduces PayPass mobile stickersMasterCard introduces PayPass mobile stickersBlaze Mobile has teamed with MasterCard to offer a PayPass sticker that can be attached to any mobile device and used for contactless payment transactions at 141,000 PayPass-enabled merchant locations.The sticker transmits card information to the merchant's point-of-sale terminal via RFID technology, allowing consumers to "tap" their mobile...

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MasterCard Announces Q1 Financials Conference Call

MasterCard Incorporated to Host Conference Call on First-Quarter 2009 Financial ResultsPurchase, NY, March 30, 2009 - On Friday, May 1, 2009, MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) will releaseits first-quarter 2009 financial results. The company will host aconference call to discuss these results at 9:00 a.m. Eastern DaylightTime.The dial-in information for this call is 866... 771-8198 (within the US) and 617-597-5327(outside the US) and the...

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