The US credit and debit card issuers are, reportedly expected to complete migration to EMV chip card technology by 2017, amid increased cyber theft incidents in the country.
The EMV standard, which derives its name from Europay / MasterCard / Visa, will include chip and PIN cards, as well as contactless payments in the US.
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The recent credit card data theft at retailers Target and Neiman Marcus has been attributed to the inability of the magnetic strip in the card, which stores all required data for a credit card fraud.
Tripwire, a data security firm that works with companies like Visa, MasterCard and Safeway, Security Research director, Lamar Bailey, was quoted by Forbes as saying, "Basically, the magnetic strip contains all the data needed for credit card fraud.
"Unfortunately, these strips are very easy to read and duplicate and are a favourite target for a wide variety of financial fraud."
Bailey said that EMV has not been popular in the US because of the high cost of replacing all the credit card readers and millions of credit cards.
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By GlobalDataMeanwhile, IDTheftSecurity.com CEO Robert Siciliano, told the publication that EMV chip cards contain an embedded microchip that will be authenticated using a personal identification number, or PIN.
Siciliano added: "When a customer uses a smart card to make a purchase, the card is placed into a PIN pad terminal or a modified swipe-card reader, which accesses the card’s microchip and verifies the card’s authenticity. The customer then enters a four digit PIN, which is checked against the PIN stored on the card."
