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October 4, 2014

Keeping Credit Cards and Bank Account Data from Hackers

Introduction

Credit Card FraudIn Europe, credit and debit cards contain a microchip, making them more secure. Ed Alcock for The New York Times

JPMorgan Chase has disclosed that the accounts of 83 million households and businesses were compromised this summer in a cyberattack. Nine other financial institutions were also infiltrated by the same group of overseas hackers.

This revelation follows the news last month that account information for 56 million cardholders was stolen by hackers from Home Depot.

As fraud losses continue to rise as a result of data breaches, what will it take to make bank accounts or credit cards secure?

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Debaters

  • Jose Pagliery

    Get Rid of Your Credit and Debit Cards

    Jose Pagliery, author, "Bitcoin and the Future of Money"

    Smartphones, using Google Wallet, and soon, Apple Pay, have the potential to be more secure than what we have today.

  • Paul Kocher

    Moving to ‘Smart’ Credit Cards Will Help

    Paul Kocher, Cryptography Research

    The upgrade will deny criminal hackers one of their most lucrative strategies, but they won’t give up.

  • Rebecca Wright

    There Are Solutions for the Web

    Rebecca Wright, Computer Science Professor

    A system where transactions require the disclosure of a “secret” credential — in this case, the credit card number — is, by its very nature, insecure.

  • Peter G. Neumann

    Every System Can Be Compromised

    Peter G. Neumann, SRI International Computer Science Laboratory

    The problem of security is not just limited to financial systems, but extends to all of the critical national infrastructure.

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