Security Continues to Be a Challenge for Information Technologies

Although steps have been taken to ensure better security for information, the need for increased safety measures is still high. An interesting trend that has been noticed over the recent years is that not only criminal individuals or groups are involved in information theft, but also rogue states that do not abide by the same rules as the rest of the world. As information technology criminality is on the rise, the most important challenge for IT specialists remains security.

How the new security model should look like

Depending on the same security models used in the past would be a huge mistake, given the enhanced capabilities manifested by the criminal masterminds involved in information theft and trade. The new model of cyber-security has to live up to expectations.

Specialists involved in developing this new model have to demonstrate that they understand the true dimensions of the new risks imposed by the changes taking place in the world. Even if cyber criminality takes place in a virtual environment, it does not mean that it is less dangerous than crimes happening in the real world.

Agile methodologies will definitely have a place in how the new security model will be shaped. Specialists need to use agile methods for recognizing action patterns, in order to predict the behavior of those attacking a system. Large amounts of information will have to be analyzed in order to understand the methods used by cyber-criminals. All the information that will be maintained will have to serve for taking action against these methods.

When nations lag behind

There is another reason why IT companies specialized in information security need to be able to face the new challenges. Nations, while being faced with increased levels of cyber criminality, are encountering great pains in elaborating the needed legislation in order to put a stop to such attacks. Whether people like it or not, nations lag behind in this war on cyber criminality, which means that it is up to privately owned companies to come up with innovative solutions in this regard.

The new technology has arrived

As analysts say, the new technology that can be used in the war against cyber criminality is already here and it just waits to be used properly. Such technology is represented by Big Data inspired tools, that allow the use of information while being stored and managed inside the cloud. Also, agile methodologies are very useful in creating a good environment for quickly identifying methods employed by cyber attackers.

The challenge

Hackers become more and more knowledgeable, which allows them to coordinate more elaborate attacks. For this reason, IT specialists working in the field of security need to become up to date, as well. Since nations cannot move as fast as cyber criminals, data centers and IT security companies have to implement new technologies and methodologies to counter-attack them. Legislation is slowly moving forward, but there is still a long way until rogue states can truly be held responsible for their involvement in cyber criminality.

Is EMV Technology Coming Soon?

The credit card industry in the United States has been dominated by technology that includes a magnetic strip for many years now. While this is still the dominant method that credit card companies use for their credit cards, it may not be that way forever. Technology known as EMV (Europay Mastercard & Visa), has the potential to replace the magnetic strip in the future. While you may have been hearing about this technology from merchant services reps to invest in new terminals, don't make the move just yet.

Why is EMV better than Magstripe Technology?

What exactly is EMV and why would credit card companies want to use it instead of a magnetic strip? The primary difference between EMV and the magnetic strip is that EMV cards use an embedded microprocessor chip within the card to encrypt the data for each transaction. This chip is a type of small computer that provides strong security features and other capabilities not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards. When the card gets close to a reader, it is activated electronically. The chip receives a signal from the card reader and then sends a signal back to authenticate the card. The chip typically has the technology to alternate between verification methods for each individual transaction. For example, sometimes it asks for a pin number and sometimes it will ask for a signature. EMV is considered to be a safer credit card technology because the payment information changes every time. By comparison, with a magnetic strip, the payment information is the same for every transaction. This makes it more difficult for identity thieves to use stolen credit cards.

Another type of chip card technology used for payment is called contactless (a subject worthy of it's own future article). It works by holding the contactless chip card within a couple of inches of a contactless-capable reader. The reader energizes the chip embedded in the card and allows exchange of data via radio frequency without the card ever leaving the cardholder's possession

Magnetic stripe cards can be susceptible to fraud through skimming, where a card is swiped through a magnetic stripe reader to record the information needed to use the card for payment. The cardholder gets the card back and is unaware of the risk of fraud. The data stolen from the card can be written to another magnetic stripe card, effectively creating a duplicate that can be swiped to make a fraudulent purchase at an unsuspecting merchant.

How quickly will this transition take place?

Because of the increased protection from credit card fraud, it is inevitable that the United States will adopt this technology but it will take a while. Just to give you a bit of history, back in 2001 3des pin pads were announced as being a necessity to replace less secure pin pads. The full implementation wasn't completed until 2009-2010. Keep in mind, this was just a pin pad that required a lot less-no new cards, new hardware, new encryption and new programming. With the new EMV technology, issuers will need to issue new cards (they say this new chip embedded card costs about $5 each in comparison to the current magstripe cards at $.05 each), new machines need to be developed and placed, new pin pads and new programming for it all. And the EMV "Standard" as it is called, has yet to even be announced. So, if it took 8-9 years to implement new pin pads, how long do you think EMV will take?

As of right now, processors have till April 2013 to be "ready" to process these transactions so they are implementing the back end. Issuers are gearing up as well and, in fact, some are beginning to issue new EMV type cards to their card holders who travel internationally, where EMV technology is the standard.

There is certified equipment currently available that can handle EMV transactions but, they'll need to be updated once the EMV standards have been set. Some of them will need a peripheral device attached. So, as a merchant, my advice is to wait it out for a while until it becomes absolutely necessary to get the new equipment.

Card companies starting to implement this technology

Although this technology has been a little bit slow to be adopted in the US, some credit card companies are starting to implement the technology. Many of the credit card companies in the United States are starting to issue cards that have both EMV and magnetic strips in them. This makes it possible for them to use the cards and regular retailers in the United States or with credit card machines that use EMV in Europe. As more people start to use these cards, the technology will slowly be adopted in the US.

· In August 2011, Visa announced plans to accelerate chip migration and adoption of mobile payments in the United States, through retailer incentives, processing infrastructure acceptance requirements and counterfeit card liability shift.

· In January 2012, MasterCard announced their U.S. roadmap to enable the next generation of electronic payments, with EMV the foundational technology.

· In March 2012, Discover announced implementation of a 2013 mandate for acquirers and direct-connect merchants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, to support EMV.

· In June 2012, American Express announced its U.S. EMV roadmap to advance contact, contactless and mobile payments and plans to begin issuing EMV-compliant cards in the U.S. in the latter half of 2012.

Thanks to the EMV standards, chip card issuers have a uniform standard to help them ensure that the payment cards they give their cardholders will work in EMV compliant acceptance infrastructures anywhere in the world. Merchants and banks can invest in chip card acceptance infrastructures knowing EMV compliant cards have been developed based on uniform standards. Cardholders can feel more confident knowing the security advantages of EMV will help protect them against the risk of fraud anywhere EMV is implemented.

Beginning this October, retailers who process most of their Visa card transactions from payment terminals capable of handling EMV chip-based cards may be able to avoid having a PCI data-security audit on an annual basis - and eventually pay lower interchange fees as well.

In 2015, the card associations will begin to shift liability for card fraud to further motivate compliance of EMV-capable terminals.. For example, liability will be assumed by the card-issuing bank if the card used does not have an EMV chip but the merchant's payment terminal is EMV-capable. Conversely, merchants will be liable if the card does contain a chip but the terminal is not able to process it.

So, in summary, EMV is definitely coming and merchants simply need to stay informed in order to make intelligent decisions for their business. Hopefully this article has enlightened you regarding this topic.

Innovation and Manufacturing - Proximity Is Paramount Even With CAD CAM Internet Technology

Perhaps you have heard that GE and other major companies want to build an "Industrial Internet" which would allow secure transmissions with incredible bandwidth. This would enable the designers, innovators, and factories to collaborate in real time with huge files and lots data. Not only great for design but also for the animation and movie sectors, or the future of 3-D printing, holographic imagery, and a host of new technologies coming online now.

Certainly, the military would also like this, and the government, perhaps even the future of the E-Republic as well. In the past many have said that the designers need to be close to the manufacturers, materials, die and tool makers, and marketplace to insure a fast information feedback loop on changes to insure seamless transition from design to fruition. This makes sense of course.

One challenge I am having with all this is that this is not new knowledge, we've always known, but not some are replaying it as if it is a new finding. As a former franchisor founder and entrepreneur, to me this is all second nature, but apparently some outside of business or the actual doing of things have purported this as a new finding.

MIT Technology Review had an interesting article published on January 13, 2013 titled; "Manufacturing in the Balance - Inexpensive labor has defined the last decade in manufacturing. The future may belong to technology," by Antonio Regaldo, which describes an interesting Harvard paper and research piece on innovation, management, and manufacturing.

Now then, as interesting as this research paper may appear to be, it should be noted that I'd read the same argument in 70s, 80s, and 90s in various business books - what I am saying is that Harvard business professors need to pony up with original thought and not PR their attempts at plagiarizing ideas from past periods. They as professors should know or should have known this is NOT news, if they didn't know they are incompetent and should not be professors or researchers, if they did know, they stole the idea, showing a lack of integrity in my view.

Okay so, what am I saying here? Well, I am saying that I personally am not all that impressed and want real new, and relevant information, I'd expect more from a University with a rich history like Harvard, I am not impressed and even though my ancestors (direct) started that institution, I cannot sign on to this research as anything new or even legitimately relevant, it is known knowledge and anyone who has ever run such a company ought to inherently know this as a standard base of knowledge, it's just obvious, it was no revelation back then nor now.

If humans really want to excel at innovation they need to start innovating, stop talking about it, and start doing it. Yes, we need to the tools to streamline the process, we've always needed faster ways to get ideas to market, or inventions to reality, there is nothing new about that, nothing at all. Please consider all this and think on it.