How will Obama’s executive order affect the retail industry?
It seems as if every month news of a recent data infiltration hits the presses, each one more disconcerting than the last.
Some retailers have taken more extensive measures than others in regard to implementing effective information protection methods, but it's evident the U.S. executive body believes more can be done.
Going beyond Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards
Retail Customer Experience noted that President Barack Obama recently signed an executive order in response to the massive data breaches experienced by some of the nation's largest companies.
Appropriately dubbed "BuySecure," the endeavor will provide assistance to those who have fallen victim to identify theft, enhance the public sector's payment defense systems and jumpstart a broad transition to more robust security strategies and tools.
In addition, Obama intends to hold a White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, which will transpire sometime near the end of 2014. The gathering will be comprised of those invested in the consumer financial arena so that they can encourage adherence to stronger protection obligations and detail future technologies that will better combat cybercrime.
Focusing on debit and credit cards
Overall, the document supplied by the Presidential office alludes to migration away from debit and credit cards that use magnetic strips and PIN numbers. This could lead to the use of EMV cards, which are equipped with microprocessors that contain encryption tools not available with traditional cards.
Yet, the benefits associated with EMV aren't expected to have a major impact on the U.S. after widespread use is implemented. In order for this transition to have the desired effect, retailers across the nation need to revise their ecommerce software and POS systems to accept EMV cards. Otherwise, EMV's features may actually cause more vulnerabilities.
PYMNTS noted PCI Council Chief Bob Russo's take on the issue, saying that EMV's widespread deployment will help in the long term, but may cause disruptions during the transition period.
"These hackers [will] take advantage of, at least in the face-to-face environment, getting this credit card data," said Russo, as quoted by the source. "As we saw in other, mature EMV markets, typically the fraud is going to go up before EMV becomes embedded here in the United States. So, get prepared, for fraud is coming, and it's coming very, very strongly."
Regardless of the executive order or Russo's affirmations, it's clear that merchants must take the initiative and implement stronger security features on their own.
