Category: News

American credit card holders have long been used to swiping their cards to pay for purchases, with their data being read from the magnetic stripe on the card. But by next year, credit card issuers plan to roll out the computer-chip-based cards that the rest of the world uses for their credit card transactions.

The switch will be part of an effort to curb the fraudulent transactions and consumer data breaches that often occur from magnetic stripe cards.

The Aite Group, a financial research firm, reports that as much as 37% of credit card fraud in the United States is attributed to counterfeit magnetic stripe cards. Because those cards contain unchanging information, the data can be copied to other cards easily and used in fraudulent transactions.

The magnetic stripe card has been replaced by with a small integrated circuit embedded within the card in most other countries in the world. These are similar to the cards used in electronic voting machines in the U.S.

Those credit cards are referred to in other parts of the world as EMV cards, which take their name from the three financial companies that introduced this new standard — Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. The latter, Visa, is the most popular brand worldwide, accounting for roughly 52% of all payment volume globally.

The cards generate new data with each transaction, effectively making counterfeiting impossible. They are used the same as the magnetic stripe cards: they are inserted into the machine and require a customer signature or a PIN (personal identification number) in the case of debit cards.

The proposed change comes at a time when the payments industry is undergoing big changes. One major player, Apple Pay, has introduced convenient mobile payments in a way that doesn’t compete directly with existing credit card issuers, and which allows companies to keep their merchant fees.

MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express have established an Oct. 1, 2015 deadline to make the switch to EMV cards. At fuel pumps, however, the deadline for the switch won’t occur until 2017, due to the complexity of EMV compliance.

Once the deadline arrives, the liability for credit card fraud will shift to the least EMV-compliant party in the transaction. In many cases, this will be the merchant — if they haven’t switched their old PIN machines to new EMV card machines.

On Feb. 18, 2011, a black pickup truck sped through a red light at Highway 62’s intersection with Yucca Mesa Road. The truck crashed into the left side of bus driver Johannes Gysen’s minivan, pinning Gysen inside his vehicle.

The pickup, driven by Kimberly Mendelez, had been speeding through the desert at 70 mph.

Marijuana, which was found in Mendelez’ bloodstream following the crash, is known for triggering neurogenesis — but when combined with the cocktail of painkillers and psychoactive drugs also present in her bloodstream, it’s unlikely that any brain cells were being generated.

It took approximately 20 minutes to cut Gysen out of his vehicle, and he succumbed to his injuries in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Mendelez and her five-year-old daughter were uninjured in the crash.

While it may have been a tragedy, it certainly wasn’t an uncommon occurrence on Highway 62’s winding pathway through the desert between the Arizona border and the Coachella valley. The crash that claimed Gysen’s life was just one of an astonishing 182 deaths that have happened on Highway 62 since 2002, a new investigation by the Desert Sunreports.

The stretch of Highway 62 that runs between Parker and Twentynine Palms may be the deadliest area along this road. With 16 vehicle fatalities taking place from 2002 to 2012, Parker’s portion of Highway 62 is 12 times deadlier than the average road.

The Desert Sun’s investigation found that drugs and alcohol, despite having a hand in the crash that killed Gysen, wasn’t that common of a cause for crashes on the highway. In fact, a mere five of the 16 Highway 62 incidents near Parker involved alcohol, and only two of them involved drugs.

The investigation found that 11 of the 16 crashes to take place near Parker happened between Memorial Day and Labor Day, which is peak season for Californians who travel to Parker for river recreation.

With the majority of these crashes taking place during the daytime — meaning most drivers weren’t being blinded by a rising or setting sun — and with speed ruled out as a major contributing factor, what could be the reason for this highway’s disproportionate body count?

The answer, the Desert Sun reports, may be Highway 62’s lack of a meridian to separate the two directions of traffic and prevent head-on collisions, or barriers and rumble strips to prevent cars from drifting off to the right. That means vehicle drift is the likely reason for many of Highway 62’s crashes.

The news isn’t all bad — the Desert Sun’s report showed that fatalities on Highway 62 are in fact decreasing, thanks to bolstered efforts by cities like Parker to improve the road’s safety.

In addition, California’s Department of Transportation, Caltrans, said it plans to have spent about $50 million in the period from 2008 to 2018 on safety improvements, lane additions and expanded shoulders on the highway’s most dangerous segments.

Even so, it may be worth it for Parker residents to consider alternate routes that don’t involve driving on Highway 62 — it just might save your life.

A recent investigation conducted by the U.K. news publication The Telegraph revealed that the British insurance company Aviva shortchanged about 250 customers who bought annuities; Aviva is now stating that there was an error in sales calculations, and that the company plans to compensate every customer affected by the mistake.

Because an annuity functions like a regular paycheck for retirees — i.e., it provides a regular income for people after retiring — it is usually intended to last for many years, if not for the person’s remaining lifetime. The cost and value of an annuity, therefore, is based on multiple factors regarding the person’s health history, current health status, and changes in rates and inflation.

The recent investigation uncovered that Aviva sold annuities in 2013 that didn’t accurately reflect the health statuses of 250 separate customers. All of these customers had poor health conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and a history of smoking, which often contribute to shorter lifespans.

Normally, when an annuity is concerned, the seller will offer a better annuity package if the customer is predicted to have a shorter life expectancy. In this case, Aviva should have offered its 250 customers an annuity that guaranteed regular income for life, based on its own customer policies.

The Telegraph noted that, based on previous studies, about 60% of Aviva’s eligible customers should have been given lifetime annuity plans automatically; in reality, Aviva has only given extended annuities automatically to about 7% of its eligible customers.

This isn’t a rare occurrence, as many people are finding out. Although quite a few people are eligible for lifetime annuities, it’s estimated that only one out of every four eligible people actually have these annuities.

It comes as no surprise that Aviva has decided to compensate each of its 250 customers, and to make the compensation announcement very public. Even though the company is Britain’s largest insurer right now, and even though most annuity owners are fairly loyal to their seller — with over 90% of annuity owners stating that they still own their first annuity — Aviva could have even more problems down the road if the issue isn’t addressed swiftly. Economic experts are already predicting that a “floodgate of claims” could appear, as more people realize that they’ve been shortchanged by their annuity sellers too.

Unfortunately, Aviva’s mistake can’t be solved with simple financial compensation, since quite a few affected annuity owners have already passed away. It’s likely that the company’s “error” will be investigated thoroughly, since a “mistake” of that gravity is not likely to go unnoticed for well over a year. However, perhaps the silver lining in this situation is that annuity owners across the globe are paying attention and are taking a second look at their own financial plans.

A homework assignment at Mapleton Junior High School in Utah has sparked controversy and a social media firestorm regarding privacy and HIPAA violations, Fox 13 reported Oct. 23.

The responsible teacher and Nebo School District representatives insist that the assignment was innocent in intent, but some parents and commentators aren’t so sure.

What’s in Your Medicine Cabinet?

The assignment required students to take an inventory of their parents’ medicine cabinets, note the items on a form and return them to the teacher.

“This was an innocent mistake,” said Lana Hiskey, speaking for the school district. “It was part of a health unit. [The teacher] wanted parents to know how to clean their medicine cabinets.”

The form included spots for the name of each medication, its purpose and whether it was still being used. The top of the assignment sheet included an explanation that failing to properly dispose of medications is a leading cause of substance abuse in the county.

Outrage erupted when it was suggested that the assignment was part of Common Core standards and would be recorded as part of national data-mining.

But the school district says this was an individual assignment given by a misguided teacher.

“Sometimes we’re blindsided, we don’t know if a teacher is giving something out that they shouldn’t be doing,” Hiskey said, telling parents that they should always alert the school if an assignment seems inappropriate.

Passionate Responses

The issue was first brought to the school’s attention by a parent, Onika Nugent. “Although it may be a good idea for parents to do an inventory of their medicine cabinet, I believe it is inappropriate for students to counsel their parents, or report to the school what that inventory is. It is a complete invasion of privacy,” she said.

The issue also came across the desk of Deidre Henderson, a Utah state senator. Even as she acknowledged that there is a drug abuse problem that must be addressed in the county, she condemned this particular way of attempting to reduce it.

“They’re attaching drug abuse with, ‘Hey, tell us all the prescription drugs you may be on,'” she said. “There is a shame and a stigma that is attached to that for kids who may be taking prescription medications.”

Some responses were even more pointed, such as an Oct. 27 blog for American Thinker from Thomas Lifson that called the students “little spies” and the teacher “Big Sister.” “That is a not a request to clean the medicine cabinet,” he wrote, “it is a database on the most private aspects of parents’ lives.”

In a saga that seems to have no end, the sandwich restaurant chain Jimmy John’s is the most recent company to acknowledge a major point-of-sale system breach.

It’s a refrain that anyone who’s been following the POS breaches knows by heart: malware was once again used to steal customer credit card data, including card numbers, cardholder names, expiration dates and verification codes.

At least 216 of Jimmy John’s locations were affected, between June 16, 2014 and Sept. 5, 2014. The malware appears to have been installed on the company’s POS devices on July 1, 2014, and the bulk of it was discovered and removed between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5, 2014.

Jimmy John’s says that it doesn’t have access to the information that would allow them to contact affected customers, but customer can view a list of affected stores with dates of exposure online.

“Jimmy John’s has taken steps to prevent this type of event from occurring in the future,” the company said in a statement, “including installing encrypted swipe machines, implementing system enhancements, and reviewing its policies and procedures for its third party vendors.”

Unfortunately, this particular breach doesn’t end with Jimmy John’s. A total of 108 independent restaurant locations running POS equipment provided by Signature Systems have been affected as well, according to a statement released by the POS provider. POS systems allow retailers and restaurants to review daily sales reports and retain customer information. It’s the second feature that hackers are taking advantage of.

A full list of the affected restaurants can be viewed at http://www.pdqpos.com/notice.html.

“We have determined that an unauthorized person gained access to a user name and password that Signature Systems used to remotely access PoS systems,” Signature Systems announced in a statement. “The unauthorized person used that access to install malware designed to capture payment card data from cards that were swiped through terminals in certain restaurants.”

This statement echoes many statements released by companies in the last year. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a warning last month that over 1,000 American businesses had been affected by the infamous Backoff POS malware alone.

Consumers are advised to watch for any unusual charges on their accounts, and retailers are advised to upgrade and secure their POS systems.