Weekly News Roundup: August 23, 2013

The news focus was back in the U.S. this week, with a look at the impact of card fraud on the micro and macro levels. In Sandy, Ore., hundreds of people have been victimized in a card fraud spree, where a local Dairy Queen store and a Fred Meyer gas station were targeted by fraudsters with malware that stole card details from store POS systems.

It’s another example of why the U.S. is one of the leading sources of card fraud worldwide. A study by The Nilson Report found that the U.S. accounts for more than 47 percent of global card fraud, despite generating only 23.5 percent of total transactions. Card fraud around the world was up 14 percent last year to $11.27 billion.

Lastly, the Payment Card industry Security Standards Council released a preview of the changes due out in November with v3.0 of the PCI Data Security Standards. Experts widely viewed the changes as a more mature approach to risk management over the old version, which many felt was too focused on ‘point-in-time’ compliance.

KXL-FM – Suspects Wanted in Huge Credit Card Fraud Case – Hundreds of victims are out tens of thousands of dollars in a series of credit card fraud cases in Sandy, Ore. The POS systems at a local Dairy Queen and Fred Meyer gas station were compromised via a malware attack, which siphoned card details out of the network, according to police. Photos of two suspects have been released from security cameras that captured purchased made with fraudulent cards.

PYMNTS.com – Global Card Fraud Rises 14% In 2012 – Acquirers, issuers and merchants lost $11.27 billion due to fraud in 2012, according to a new study from The Nilson Report. This figure was up 14.6 percent from 2011, but was largely buoyed by high levels of fraud in the U.S., which accounted for 47.3 percent of global fraud losses, despite generating just 23.5 percent of the total transactions for goods and services. Nilson indicated that this was due to the country’s slow EMV migration and its influence on rising levels of counterfeiting.

Dark Reading – Is PCI Growing Up? – While the highlights released last week in the preview of the PCI DSS v3.0 may not reflect all of the changes on tap, many experts agreed that this time around, the council is baking in more provisions to move the exercise of PCI compliance beyond point-in-time, check-box activities into continuous compliance and, eventually, more mature risk management practices.