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 Recently received a new credit card that has a microchip on its front? Wondering about the change? 
 
 Credit cards with security chips are a part of the new card processing system being adopted by the U.S., whereby the card used by a consumer will have a special microchip that will need to be inserted in a reader rather than swiped at a checkout terminal to close a transaction. 
 
 The new credit cards look like any old credit card except that they have a tiny metallic chip on the front. The chip-embedded cards deploy EMV microchips, which is short for Europay, MasterCard and Visa. This system is already in use in several parts of Europe. 
 
 The microchip basically contains a user's payment information, which so far was contained on the magnetic strip. The microchip also gives a novel code which is different for every purchase. 
 
 The transition to chip-enabled credit cards will make life more difficult for criminals as they are more secure than magnetic strip-only cards. 
 
 How? Because the microprocessor in the microchips - which is like a mini computer - adds an additional layer of security for each transaction. 
 
 According to Visa's Stephanie Erickson, Head of Authentication Product Integration, while criminals were able to make counterfeit physical copies of magnetic strip-based cards, the chip-based cards will make the process more difficult. Since the chips contain data relating to a specific purchase, their reproduction is tough. 
 
 "They can't create a counterfeit card which is two-thirds of the fraud we see in the system," says Erickson. 
 
 Moreover, Erickson opines that countries which shifted to this technology within two years of the transition, saw the counterfeit reduce by 60 to 70 percent. 
 
 Some may argue that the unique transaction code generated by the chip every single time the credit card is used may lead to a compromise. However, experts alleviate the fear by assuring that even if the code was gotten hold of by a thief it would be worthless. 
 
 One, however, would still be required to sign even when deploying a chip-based card. 
 
 While the new system promises more safety, a downside of the new microchip-based credit cards is that they take longer to process when compared to the older system. If an old swipe transaction took three to five seconds, then this "dip" method takes between five to ten seconds. 
 
 The increased time for transaction would impact the lines at the checkout and could be a problem especially during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday. 
 
 On Oct. 1, merchants - not card issuers - will be responsible for fraudulent transactions if they don't upgrade their payment terminals. 
 
 © 2016 Tech Times, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. ||||| Privacy & Security 
 
 Target Hack A Tipping Point In Moving Away From Magnetic Stripes 
 
 i itoggle caption Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Christopher Furlong/Getty Images 
 
 The credit and debit card data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus compromised more than 70 million American consumers, and analysts say even more of us are at risk. That's because the technology we use to swipe for our purchases — magnetic stripes on the backs of cards — isn't hard for a skilled fraudster to hack. 
 
 "It's totally unprotected and it's static, so it's the same data that's read every single time. It's just about the worst security that you can put into a payment system," says Avivah Litan, a security analyst for Gartner, a firm retailers hire to assess their cybersecurity gaps. 
 
 Sophisticated cyberthieves got consumer data during the holiday season breaches by injecting a virus into Target's card payment terminals. From there, the bad guys systematically captured the information found on every card swiped, from Thanksgiving through just before Christmas. 
 
 "We've seen hacks as big as this before, in fact we've seen bigger, but what we haven't seen before is something this sophisticated and well-organized," Litan says. The data from the cards were turned around and sold on an underground market, where thieves can re-create credit cards using the stolen data and use them to make fraudulent purchases, she says. 
 
 Industry leaders know magnetic stripes are outdated and easily exploitable. The rest of the world moved on to a more secure, harder-to-hack payment system based on chip-enabled cards — chip and PIN. Chip-enabled cards are more secure because the data on the chip are hidden behind encryption. So even if criminals intercept what's on it, they can't reuse it. 
 
 "It's standardized all over the world and used all over the world, except in the U.S. and perhaps one country in Africa," Litan says. 
 
 It's a reality that NPR's new London correspondent, Ari Shapiro, learned quickly when he moved overseas a few weeks ago. 
 
 "Basically my American credit card is like a second-class citizen here," Shapiro says. "I can't use the self-checkout line at the supermarket; I can't use the automated machine in the subway system or the post office. Some merchants charge me an extra charge just because of my American credit card." 
 
 Shapiro's new British pal, Ben Thompson, explains how he pays for purchases without swiping — or signing. 
 
 "I put the card in the machine. The retailer, the cashier will hand me a little key pad, I type in my [PIN]. And that verifies the transaction. It means I don't have to sign, I don't have to use a pen. I literally type in four little numbers," Thompson says. 
 
 As of last May, Visa says it issued at least 3.5 million chip cards in the U.S., and it aims to get the majority of U.S. consumers on chip-based cards by 2015. But changing over all those cards and card readers costs a lot of money, which is part of the reason it hasn't happened sooner. 
 
 "You have to upgrade all the terminals that are out there that are used by the merchants; you have to upgrade all the ATM machines; you have to issue new cards to consumers. So it's a lengthy process," says Litan, who estimates that even if a concerted effort to change to chip and PIN started today, it wouldn't be standard in the U.S. for at least three more years. 
 
 Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal reports that Target actually tried to collaborate with Visa 10 years ago, to use chip cards in 1,000 stores. But executives shelved the effort over worries that chip-based cards slowed down checkout speeds. 
 
 "It's gonna take time. It's going to be extraordinarily expensive. But it's something we must do," says Mallory Duncan, the general counsel at the National Retail Federation. "What the recent breaches have done is shone a spotlight on it and now I think all of the players are recognizing that changes have to be made." 
 
 He says retailers will adjust, because the cost of more major data breaches is too great. 
 
 "If you start bringing out the new PIN and chip cards, then retailers will begin to reconfigure their point of sale equipment to accept those cards," Duncan says. ||||| On Thursday, merchants who cannot process chip-enabled cards could become liable for fraudulent transactions at their stores. MasterCard and Visa set the deadline for the new rules, which are part of their agreements with the retailers and banks that use their networks. American Express will shift liability on Oct. 16. 
 
 Consumers, however, will not be caught in the middle. Federal law requires banks to reimburse consumers for different types of fraud. The only difference is that, come Thursday, banks could go after retailers that have not properly updated their equipment. 
 
 Not everyone will have chip-enabled cards by the deadline. While most customers at the big banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America will receive their cards by the end of the year, some will not get new cards until 2016. Some issuers will also wait until customers’ existing cards are close to expiring. 
 
 Credit and debit cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, or until consumers activate their new cards. And they will still work at payment terminals that have been updated to accommodate chips. 
 
 But new machines will prompt users who swipe a chip card to dip it instead. 
 
 “You should always use the chip device, not the swipe device,” said Ed Mierzwinski, the consumer program director of U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest groups.
– Credit card purchases are about to get a little slower and a lot more secure. Consumers have been receiving new cards with fraud-prevention chips and on Thursday, a lot more retailers will be asking customers to put their card in a reader instead of swiping it, reports the Los Angeles Times. Oct. 1 is the day that the credit card industry will start shifting liability for fraudulent transactions to issuers and merchants that haven't adopted the new technology, which is already used in much of the rest of the world and is credited with dramatically reducing fraud by making it harder to duplicate cards. Cards without chips will continue to work until they expire, though experts tell the New York Times that consumers who have the choice should always opt to dip a card in a reader instead of swiping it. The chips in the new cards use a system known as EMV, for creators Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. They contain buyer information and add an extra level of security by creating a new code for every purchase, Tech Times explains. In Europe, consumers need to enter a PIN, but US retailers will only require signatures. Around 70% of cards will have chips by the end of this year, according to the LA Times, though the full switch is expected to take years. Retailers worry that the extra few seconds per purchase will slow down businesses at peak times—and that more fraud will now take place online. "It's like closing the front door but leaving the back door open," a National Retail Federation exec tells the New York Times. "The thieves will figure out that the back door is unlocked."