How Obama Helps Americans Stay Safe(r) with Chip and PIN Cards

Good news everyone!

While the United States are leading the way on many fronts, there are some important things where our government and companies are falling behind the rest of the world. A good example would be the chip-enabled credit and debit cards. All of European Union, for example, is using this technology on practically all their payment cards. The US companies were opposed to investing into this more secure technology, since that would mean a large-scale retro-fitting of their current POS systems.

Now, however, that is slowly, but surely, starting to change. With the recent wave of massive data breaches (Target, Home Depot, etc.), companies and the government are acknowledging just how severe the consequences might be.

“With over 100 million Americans falling victim to data breaches over the last year, and millions suffering from credit card fraud and identity crimes, there is a need to act — and to move our economy toward stronger, more secure technologies that better secure transactions and safeguard sensitive data,” stated the White House.

President Obama ordered this Friday, that all government issued payment cards must be equipped with chip and PIN technology.

It’s not just the government that’s making moves in the right direction, large companies are joining in as well. Target, for example, announced, that they are accelerating their $100 million investment in chip card technology and will start accepting and issuing chip technology cards.