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Visa Claims Chip Cards Reduced Fraud By 70% (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Ars Technica:
Although only 59 percent of US storefronts have terminals that accept chip cards, fraud has dropped 70 percent from September 2015 to December 2017 for those retailers that have completed the chip upgrade, according to Visa.
There are a few ways to interpret those numbers. First, it seems like two years has resulted in staggeringly little progress in encouraging storefronts to shift from magnetic stripe to chip-embedded cards, given that in early 2016, 37 percent of US storefronts were able to process chip cards. On the other hand, fraud dropping 70 percent for retailers who install chip cards seems great. Chip-embedded cards aren't un-hackable, but they do make it harder to steal card numbers en masse as we saw in the Target's 2013 breach.
There are a few ways to interpret those numbers. First, it seems like two years has resulted in staggeringly little progress in encouraging storefronts to shift from magnetic stripe to chip-embedded cards, given that in early 2016, 37 percent of US storefronts were able to process chip cards. On the other hand, fraud dropping 70 percent for retailers who install chip cards seems great. Chip-embedded cards aren't un-hackable, but they do make it harder to steal card numbers en masse as we saw in the Target's 2013 breach.
Same thing in Europe - chip cards rules since at least 10 years now.
Just minor problems that are easy to resolve by cleaning the chip contacts against the shirt whenever there's a problem.
This seems to be pretty much a symptom where the US is - way behind on a lot of things these days compared to 50 years ago when the US was the leader in technology.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Funny when Americans think that wirelessly powered computers used for strong crypto embedded in plastic cards are "just plastic cards".
It's not the ancient plastic cards that are technology, it's the computer embedded into them, and the crypto, NFC, wireless power and other things used around them that make them technology. Is it just because the US is the last in the world to start supporting this that it's "backwards"?
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