The Broken Link - Digital Transactions

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TRENDS & TACTICS TRENDS & TACTICS Aloha and Micros. For each Mocapay transaction, merchants pay a flat 19 cents, well below credit and debit card acceptance costs, with funds settlement nightly. There’s also a fee of $10 per month per terminal. Mocapay is targeting primarily grocery chains and mall merchants, Gentry says, believing these retailers to be the best fit with the company’s target customer, whose age falls between 14 and 30. “They spend a lot of time at the mall,” he says. Last year, the fledgling company made its first foray outside of the Denver area by arranging to have its service added by Cincinnati Bell to a handset program it has with the University of Cincinnati that puts cell phones in student hands with certain campus numbers preloaded. About 30 merchants on and around the campus now accept Mocapay, with Kroger Co. expected to add two stores to the service. With the bank card and wireless networks squabbling over how to deploy near-field communication (NFC), merchant setup may be Mocapay’s chief competitive advantage. That’s because its system doesn’t depend on NFC, the short-range technology that allows brick-and-mortar payments from handsets but requires merchants to install contactless readers. “[Mocapay] has provided a solution that allows merchants to start accepting payments instantly without any new hardware,” says Crone. Mocapay also plans to beef up security. Though it says its text messages go through four levels of authentication, a downloadable application is in the works that could be used instead of texting and would offer more layers of security. DT Credit Card And E-Banking Web Transaction Indexes Following are the Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index and the Keynote E-Banking Web Transaction Performance Index. The Keynote Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index measures the performance and availability of going to a selected credit card site and logging in to conduct the appropriate intended actions and checking or signing out. All measurements are taken from the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.) on high-speed links attached to key points on the largest U.S. Internet Service Protocol (ISP) backbones. The Keynote E-Banking Web Transaction Performance Index shows the total execution time and success rate for logging into an account and checking the account balance on selected Internet banking sites. The sites included in the index were selected based on publicly Credit Card Web Transaction Performance Index Week starting January 7, 2007 Rank By Speed (seconds) Response Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank Target Time (sec) 12/31 12/24 12/17 1 Diners Club 3.74 1 1 1 2 US Bank 4.83 2 2 2 3 Chase 5.78 3 3 3 4 National City 8.29 4 5 4 5 Wells Fargo 8.88 5 4 5 6 Providian 9.32 6 6 6 Credit Card Index 9.79 7 Citibank 10.25 8 7 7 8 Capital One 10.26 7 8 8 9 American Express 11.09 9 9 9 10 HSBC 14.71 10 10 10 11 Discover Card 17.53 11 DNR DNR 12 Bank of America 17.87 12 11 11 available market-share information published in The Wall Street Journal and other reliable industry sources. Data for these indexes, supplied each week by Keynote Systems Inc., San Mateo, Calif., reflect performance for the most recent week available before the production deadline for this issue, as well as rankings for the three previous weeks. Sites from these lists may be removed from weekly published results due to insufficient data points for a particular week. For other weeks the site was removed, its ranking will be indicated as “DNR”—did not rank. For more information on the methodology behind the indexes, visit www. keynote.com. For more complete statistics for the weeks indicated, go to www.digitaltransactions.net, click on “Web Transaction Performance Indexes,” and click on the hyperlink for the week you’re interested in at the bottom of the page. Rank By Success Rate (percentage) Success Outage Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank Target Rate (%) Hours 12/31 12/24 12/17 1 Diners Club 100 0 8 1 1 1 National City 100 0 2 1 2 1 Wells Fargo 100 0 3 3 4 4 US Bank 99.73 0 1 3 3 5 Citibank 99.6 0 7 5 6 6 Chase 99.08 0 5 6 8 7 Bank of America 98.61 0 10 10 9 8 Discover Card 98.52 1 12 DNR DNR Credit Card Index 98.48 0 9 Providian 97.78 2 6 8 5 10 Capital One 97.73 0 3 8 11 11 American Express 95.76 6 11 6 10 12 HSBC 94.91 5 9 11 7 E-Banking Transaction Performance Index Week starting January 7, 2007 Rank By Speed (seconds) Response Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank Target Time (sec) 12/31 12/24 12/17 1 Etrade 3.24 1 1 1 2 WAMU 3.26 2 2 2 3 US Bank 4.78 3 3 3 4 Chase 5.47 4 4 4 5 Wachovia 6.76 5 5 5 eBanking Index 7.59 6 PNC 8.41 6 6 7 7 National City 8.65 7 8 8 8 Wells Fargo 9.24 8 7 6 9 Bank of America 12.66 9 9 9 10 CitiBank 17.77 DNR DNR DNR Rank By Success Rate (percentage) Success Outage Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank w/o Rank Target Rate (%) Hours 12/31 12/24 12/17 1 Etrade 100 0 1 6 1 1 Wells Fargo 100 0 5 1 9 3 WAMU 99.87 0 6 1 8 4 National City 99.6 0 4 1 1 5 US Bank 99.47 1 2 1 4 6 Chase 99.34 0 3 7 7 7 PNC 99.19 1 8 5 4 8 Bank of America 99.06 0 7 8 3 eBanking Index 99.05 0 9 Wachovia 98.53 1 9 9 6 10 CitiBank 95.37 2 DNR DNR DNR 12 • digitaltransactions • February 2008
Security Notes A ‘Mark of Cain’ Could Deter Data Thieves Gideon Samid • Gideon@agsencryptions.com Cain’s punishment for his offense against his Biblical brother Abel was to be forever recognized as the criminal he was. Maybe the Bible can teach some modern employers and crime fighters a lesson. Rather than the enduring ignominy they deserve, today’s hackers enjoy enduring obscurity. Once exposed for data violations, the hacker is simply discharged. His tale is hushed up and goes no further. But he does—straight to the bank across the street, where he flaunts his brilliant résumé while making no mention of his recent escapade. Since the hackers who actually steal data or modify records are so lightly dealt with, it’s hard to prosecute them, even if someone wished to. Victims—who need the image of security more than security itself—opt to cover up an event that would expose their lax security. They reach a pact with their data rapist, and pretend that all is well. One could argue it’s their own business. But when China was exposed as hiding the “private fact” that so many people died of SARS, the world community was outraged, and the Chinese eventually apologized without arguing that it was a private affair. Hackers, and the thievery of data they propagate, present the same sort of predicament as communicable diseases. For that reason alone, hiding data violations and covering up for data violators should be a criminal offense. But even more could be done about the problem. The FBI should organize a data-crime center, much like the initiatives they organize to fight child pornography and pedophiles. If neighbors have the right to know that a convicted child rapist lives among them, data dealers should have the right to be aware that the person who logged onto their site is a convicted hacker. Convicted identity thieves should have their mug shots posted and their crimes exposed on the same Internet they so deftly use for their villainous purposes. But how could we be sure to identify a convicted data offender in any interaction? He could be forced to surf the Internet with an e-mail address that instantly exposes his past in an unmistakeable way. Offenders could do anything online, but their address would say something like John.Doe@fraudlist.gov. That would put anyone on alert. Exposure and permanent tagging as a punishment is very cost-effective. The criminals would work and roam free, but their shame would stain them wherever they go. It might just be a real deterrent. A kid realizing that, if he fools around with his father’s bank data, he may have to use such an e-mail address for the next, say, 10 years, would hesitate before going forward with his prank. Hackers who count on their employers’ eagerness to hush things up would face mandatory exposure, by law. The shame stain would identify hackers no matter which state they relocate to. And, if successful with this, the U.S. could initiate a global database for international fraudsters, seriously limiting their playground. Today, Web sites and literature glorify the ace hacker who penetrates walls built by legions of security experts. Only a few are prosecuted, and even fewer suffer lasting consequences. Is it any wonder that, instead of writing a more efficient peer-to-peer protocol, the talented hacker writes some code for pilferage-and-prowl? What’s needed is a mark of Cain. When the headlines of the hacker’s exploits fade, this shame stain will be there, day in and day out. Every time he shops for a book, buys an airline ticket, asks for information, the domain name of his e-mail address will alert the public. Violators of this tagging system should be treated harshly. If a convicted hacker uses a normal address instead of the one assigned to him, he should go to jail. Convicted hackers should have to go the extra mile to get a job, especially one with intensive data access. Yes, the tales of the first wave of shame-stain criminals will be real sob stories, but society might just be spared the pain of thousands of would-be hackers who were deterred. Data crimes are proven through the records; they don’t rely on witnesses. Ever-improving data-mining programs can flush out old data crimes nobody discovered. Imagine the fear in the hearts of hackers who realize a hacking offense they successfully accomplished, with no one the wiser, will in due course be exposed and haunt them for years, forcing them to write to their growing children: Here is Your_Dad@fraudlist.gov. February 2008 • digitaltransactions • 13
Page 1: VOLUME FIVE, NUMBER TWO • DIGITAL
Page 4 and 5: SOME COMPANIES STAND OUT FOR OBVIOU
Page 6 and 7: D I G I T A L T R A N S A C T I O N
Page 8: THE GIMLET EYE FEBRUARY 2008 • VO
Page 11 and 12: challenges to interchange. Last yea
Page 16 and 17: ACQUIRING February 2008 digitaltran
Page 18 and 19: ecently adopted NCR Corp.’s solut
Page 20 and 21: In addition, 67% of retail treasury
Page 23 and 24: Changing consumer behavior regardin
Page 25 and 26: Earn Interchange with United Cash S
Page 27 and 28: Inc., has announced enhancements to
Page 29 and 30: The SEAA is Back in the SouthEast A
Page 31 and 32: From the merchant perspective, deco
Page 33 and 34: Revolutionary Times Call for a Revo
Page 35 and 36: Yes, we’re on the Web. And in you
Page 37 and 38: SECURITY February 2008 digitaltrans
Page 39 and 40: they don’t want approved. Some cu
Page 41 and 42: ENDPOINT Behind the Experimentation
Page 43 and 44: ©2007 Digital Check Corp. All righ

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