Rippleshot Blog

In 2013, the Target data breach had everyone from consumers, businesses, financial institutions and those who sit somewhere in-between, trying to navigate following a catastrophic data theft. Consumers frustrated by the retailer’s data security standards attempted to bring Target to justice through class action lawsuits. However, a recent court ruling has made it much easier for organizations that suffer a data breach to be sued by affected customers. Up until late July, breached companies were able to use a legal rule to shield them from potential damages related to class action lawsuits.

In this week's issue: eighty-one percent of healthcare organizations say they have been compromised, Costco's photo center reopens after security concerns, Yahoo ads have been used to spread malware, California State University suffers a data breach and for this week's Rippleshot content, we get you up to date on everything you need to know about card cracking.

The latest fraud scheme is targeting an unlikely audience of millennials, and using social media to do it. By hitting an audience of college students or recent graduates who are likely cash-strapped and living paycheck to paycheck, the fraudsters are cashing in - literally - on this group’s often outright desperation for a quick buck.

In this week's issue: the Utah Food Bank suffers a data breach, the Obama administration is drafting possible sanctions for China, a new strain of iPhone malware has been discovered, the U.S. government will pay at least $133 million for the OPM data breach and in this week's Rippleshot blog post,  Rippleshot CEO Canh Tran looks at the 2015 holiday season and if consumers will be impacted by data breaches. 

As we approached the end of 2014, dubbed “the year of the data breach”, the US had experienced a record high of 783 publicly announced data breaches. You could not turn on the TV, open a newspaper or surf the internet without hearing how globally recognized organizations like Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase, UPS, Target and many more fell victim to a breach. Consumers experienced data breach fatigue and started to become unfazed as breach after breach was uncovered. With the 2015 holiday season nearing, analysts are looking to see if 2014’s stretch of breaches will affect consumer shopping habits in 2015.

In this week's issue: extortionists have begun targeting Ashley Madison users, one-third of employees would sell their company secrets, FTC can now fine companies for poor data security, phishing attacks can cost organizations millions and in this week's Rippleshot blog post, Rippleshot CEO Canh Tran compares the major mobile payment platforms to determine if any of these will win the battle against fraud.

The race to launch the next big mobile payment application turned into a full out sprint after Apple Pay debuted in the fall of last year. The four front-runners - Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Android Pay and CurrentC - are all competing for market share in a crowded and quickly changing payments space. Curious what the differences are between them, and which, if any, will be the answer to a growing payment card fraud problem? We break it all down, with the details you need to know:

In this week's issue: Ashley Madison's users have their personal information exposed, Target and Visa reach a settlement regarding the retailers data breach, the Illinois Department of Corrections exposes employee personal information,  the IRS data breach is worse than initially reported, and we take a look atBeware Of Public Cellphone Charging Stations

One of the latest trends in the security industry is experiencing resurgence, involves a device that nearly everyone with a smartphone has used at least once in the last twelve months. They’re in nearly every airport, your favorite restaurant or bar, conferences; it’s nearly impossible to miss the charging stations that keep our lifelines to the world charged. These charging stations are manufactured and distributed across the country by a variety of a vendors, however there is a serious security threat that dates back as a far as 2013.

In this week's issue: a Chip-Card skimmer was uncovered inside an ATM in Mexico, an investigation has been conducted into Carphone Warehouse's data breach, eCommerce sites brace for an increase in fraud, authorities foil a 5-year hacking scheme and in this week's Rippleshot blog post, we take a look into small businesses and how many are unaware of the upcoming EMV shift.

In the payment security space, the news is almost impossible to ignore. EMV chip-enabled cards are coming, along with an incredibly important fraud liability shift. As of October, whichever party (issuers or merchants) is not EMV compliant will take responsibility for fraud and all related chargebacks.

In a post covering the Fraud Summit here in Chicago in May, we discussed the growing concern over whether or not merchants will be able to meet the rapidly approaching deadline. The concern though, isn’t with the big box merchants, many of whom are already compliant - it’s with the smaller merchants who don’t have the technical support and cash that the larger companies have to implement overhauls of this size and scope.

Unfortunately, a recent survey by Wells Fargo confirms the suspicions that these smaller merchants won’t be ready. In fact, 68% of the small business owners surveyed in early July weren’t even aware that the EMV shift was happening.

Rippleshot Selected as Finalist in BBVA Open Talent 2015 Competition & ITA CityLIGHTS Awards

Nominations recognize most disruptive and innovative companies in FinTech and Chicago

In this week's issue: the University of Connecticut's cyberintrusion attack originated in China, the FBI issued a warning on DDoS attacks, security researchers have hacked the Square reader,phishing attacks are up 74% in  Q2 of 2015, and we recap the fraud management panel from this week's Retail Reinvention summit featuring Rippleshot CEO, Canh Tran.

This week, industry executives and thought leaders from all across the retail ecosystem gathered in Chicago for Retail Reinvention to discuss the strategic future of retail and payments. R₂, powered by PYMNTS.com, brought the best and brightest together to discuss how emerging payments and technologies from industry heavyweights like Walmart, McDonald's, American Express, Amazon and Target.

In this week's issue: CurrentC Is Ready To Launch, ATM Skimming Up In U.S., Five Men Arrested With Possible Connection To JPMorgan Hack, McLean Hospital Suffers Data Breach and in this week's Rippleshot blog post, we cover the latest updates from the Target data breach lawsuit.