Dive Brief:
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The number of retailers accepting EMV (for “Europay, MasterCard, and Visa”), also known as “chip and pin,” will increase 650% by October this year, according to consulting firm Boston Retail Partners.
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That date reflects the deadline when liability for payment security issues shifts from banks to retailers.
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EMV technology — which uses a chip embedded in the card to spit out a unique code (or PIN) for every transaction — has been widely used outside the U.S. for years.
Dive Insight:
U.S. retailers are woefully behind the rest of the world when it comes to point-of-sale security. Although recent high-profile data breaches have led to much talk about increasing security, the October deadline this year has been in the works for a long time.
So while this report of a massive increase in EMV use at retail POS systems is hardly surprising, the real question is how much of a difference it will make. Some of the cybersecurity issues at retailers are the result of those businesses not following their own security protocols, something that can make even EMV vulnerable. And adopting EMV may be too little, too late for retail POS security.
