Turns out the Target hack is much bigger than expected — 70MM more cards affected than initially disclosed. Reuters also reports three more major retailers to report comprise in coming days. Going rate for stolen data is $80 per card making this a huge payday for criminals Target hack alone worth $8.8B. The US will continue to a major target in cyber fraud because a far more secure credit card technology (EMV/pin) that is already widespread in Europe has yet to be implemented here. EMV uses an encrypted chip that is embedded in a card and requires a personal identification number to access the data it stores to complete a payment. In the United States, the less-secure magnetic strip on cards is still used. While consumers are likely to pull back from compromised retailers, they will likely continue to spend elsewhere in the economy. But the security costs for banks, credit card companies, retailers cannot be ignored and the concern becomes how will they potentially pass on those costs to consumers. Monica discussed this and more with Fox’s Neil Cavuto.
The Book
The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 14 2012)
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Monica Mehta 