Today, United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) said a breach of its computer systems occurred, potentially exposing customers’ personal and payment data across the United States. A spokeswoman for UPS, Chelsea Lee, said that the company found malware at 51 locations in 24 states and that the company began investigations into its computer systems on July 31st.

eBay is set to report its second-quarter results on July 16th. For the year eBay’s share price is down almost 7% and Youssef Squali of Cantor Fitzgerald has said, the company’s results will likely be “tainted” by the effects of the data breach which was announced in late May. Until eBay’s earnings report is released to the public, it will be difficult to quantify the impact of this massive data breach and the role its played in the “largest online retailer data breach in 2014.”

Today, eBay announced a truly massive data breach of sensitive data on 148 million customers, making it perhaps the second largest data breach of all time, exceeded only by the 160 million records announced lost in June 2013 by a variety of companies.

On November 27th 2013, malware was first installed throughout Target's US environment, prompting what would become the second largest credit card data breach in US history. Some estimates state that at least 70M people have had their information compromised in the Target data breach, which comes out to roughly 45% of all card-holding consumers (160M) in the US. As we approach the 6 month anniversary of Target's data breach, new updates and headlines continue to emerge.

For ATMs, the switch to a newer OS is slow and tedious On April 8th, Microsoft will be ending all support for Windows XP, its 13-year-old operating system for both consumers and businesses. Microsoft has discontinued service for XP for all consumer machines. However, almost all ATMs (roughly 95%) are still operating on Windows XP.

Data Breaches: Winning the "War" in Google Trends

If you were to ask Google to find everything there is to know about data breaches five years ago, you’d be surprised at how different the amount of results would vary compared to now. For those not familiar with Google Trends, Google analyzes a certain percentage of its web searches to determine how many searches have been done for whatever term/s that have been entered.

In the final piece of our article on EMV technology and chip and PIN cards, we're going to explain why these "smart cards" will help reduce fraud but are not the key to stopping all fraud. Basically, fraud types will shift and fraudsters will improve their fraud techniques.

When the dust finally settles, where does everyone stand?

It’s been nearly two decades since the idea of making the switch to EMV was first brought to people’s attention in the United States. With all the recent data breaches involving retailers, government agencies, healthcare providers and educational institutions, the US finally has the political will to make this change.