Online retailers breathed a sigh of relief last month when they didn’t have to muddle through the EMV migration alongside traditional retailers.
EMV, which stands for Europay, MasterCard, and Visa, is a new global standard for credit cards equipped with computer chips and security technology to authenticate transactions. In the wake of several large-scale data breaches, U.S. card issuers are migrating to the new technology to protect consumers and reduce the costs of fraud.
The new-age chip card technology means that in-store retailers had to upgrade their credit card terminals beginning on Oct. 1 to accept EMV cards. Larger retailers, such as Walmart, Costco and Target, are already scanning EMV cards. But many smaller businesses are still scrambling to install the new equipment. If chip-card readers aren’t at businesses yet, an EMV card can still be read with a swipe, just like a traditional magnetic-strip card.
Even though online-retailers have avoided the EMV frenzy, they might want to think again before assuming this change won’t impact them. That’s because while in-store retailers expect EMV technology to reduce credit card fraud, online retailers could see an uptick in flimflam as fraudsters look for other ways to rip-off businesses and consumers.
In this time of change, online retailers shouldn’t forget they’re still responsible for providing secure credit card processing and protection. They must maintain PCI (payment card industry) compliance to ensure their cyber security is air tight.
That means they have to be confident in their PCI compliance solutions. Those solutions include firewalls, intrusion detection, VPN (virtual private network), log monitoring and archiving, interval vulnerability scanning and internal and external penetration testing. The goal is to keep cardholder data safe in an online transaction setting.
Information security services, such as those offered through ZZ Servers, can help with custom designed solutions specifically engineered to provide security, stability and reliability to meet the needs of online retailers. It is critical for online merchants to protect their customers’ data as the payment card world evolves.
ZZ Servers helps businesses meet compliance and security requirements when they sell products or services over the internet, handle healthcare information or have other information technology requirements.Information Technology moves quickly and security must keep up.A little prevention goes a long way.
So even though all of the buzz about EMV technology doesn’t include online retailers, they shouldn’t get a pass to ignore the change. Online merchants must remain vigilant in maintaining their information security systems as the credit card landscape changes.
