The 2018 holiday season has been marked by increasingly stealthy and sophisticated attacks against consumers, merchants and financial institutions, security analysts have noted. Bimal Gandhi, CEO at Uniken, a security platform, cited the Marriott Starwood data security breach which just came to light as the latest example of compromised data being resold and exploited at scale. Marriott International disclosed Nov. 30, 2018, that the data breach may have compromised up to 500 million consumers whose personally identifiable information (PII) had been registered on the Starwood Hotel site. Marriott acquired the Starwood properties in September 2016, making it the world's largest hotel chain. Early forensic reports indicate the breach may have been initiated as far back as 2014, when unauthorized parties allegedly copied and encrypted information.

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The recently formed U.S. Faster Payments Council is the Federal Reserve Bank's latest bid to improve speed, security, efficiency, cross-border compatibility and collaboration in payments. Developed by the Fed's Governance Framework Formation Team (GFFT), the FPC is open to all payments industry stakeholders, who are invited to serve on committees and work groups and have a voice in the direction of the project, FPC members stated. Sean Rodriguez, Federal Reserve executive vice president and Faster Payments strategy leader called the FPC an important next step in U.S. payment system evolution, stating, "We commend the GFFT's efforts to come together and embrace the need for a new organization that will help facilitate efforts to modernize our country's payments system and allow everyone – providers, consumers, businesses, and more – to benefit from faster payments."

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Retail sales are being buoyed by a booming economy as evidenced by sales data from the first full weekend of the 2018 holiday shopping season. Retailers – online and brick and mortar combined – rang up well over $30 billion in sales this past weekend, according to preliminary data from several sources. Yesterday, on Cyber Monday, ecommerce sites made $7.9 billion in sales, an increase of 19.3 percent over sales totals for Cyber Monday 2017, reported Adobe Analytics, which keeps tabs on online sales. But many consumers didn't wait until Cyber Monday to start online shopping sprees. Adobe noted that ecommerce sites pulled in $3.7 billion on Thanksgiving Day, and a record $6.22 billion on Black Friday, the traditional start of holiday buying season.

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Merchants aren’t the only folks angling to do a brisk business this holiday season. Crooks are upping their games, too. The electronic payments company ACI Worldwide is projecting a 14 percent increase in fraud attempts between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, and a 17 percent increase in the value of attempted fraud. “The first step to fighting fraud is knowing what you’re up against,” said Erika Dietrich, global director for payments risk at ACI. “Fraudsters prepare for the peak holiday season just as much as merchants and consumers do. By anticipating the increase in fraud during the holiday shopping season, and being aware of where fraudsters may be lurking, consumers and merchants can get ahead of fraudulent activity and protect themselves.”

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As Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday and Cyber Monday draw near, security analysts are warning merchants and consumers to protect personal information and payment card data online, in stores and in mobile apps throughout the holiday season. Rich Scott, chief commercial officer at EZShield and IdentityForce, said payments industry stakeholders need to rethink security in an increasingly mobile-first world. "People tend to feel safer when transacting on their mobile device," he stated. "But mobile devices can be a gateway to identity theft and corporate data breaches, and apps are susceptible to malware, spyware and privacy exposure."

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A new report from the National Retail Federation and Forrester Research Inc. revealed that card fraud remains a top concern of retailers, despite the migration to the EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) security protocol. And ‒ no real surprise, here ‒ their biggest concerns center on card-not-present fraud. The new NRF-Forrester report, titled State of Retail Payments, identified fraud as the top payment-related challenge facing retailers, cited by 55 percent of those surveyed for the report. Other top payment-related challenges include: cost of card acceptance (cited by 49 percent) and chargebacks (35 percent).

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Payment security provider Bluefin revealed Nov. 13, 2018, that it partnered with Destiny Solutions, a software services company specializing in higher education. The partners will roll out Bluefin’s Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS)-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) solution throughout college and university environments, enhancing security and delivering a strong return on investment, representatives from both companies stated. Greg Cornwell, head of global sales at Bluefin, said the solution will encrypt credit and debit card data at point-of-entry and decrypt it using Bluefin hardware security modules. Participating merchants on the Destiny One platform will use PCI-approved point-of-entry devices.

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Electronic payments volume was up 3.8 percent, worldwide, during the third quarter 2018 compared to the same three-month period last year. The increase was almost four times the growth in average tickets during the same period, according to the latest SpendTrend report from First Data Corp. Third-quarter growth was even stronger in the United States, where spending increased 4.9 percent year-over-year, slightly outpacing growth for the second quarter.

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Three years after the Federal Reserve Board convened the Faster Payments Task Force and published its May 2015 report, Strategies for Improving the U.S. Payment System (SIPS), payments analysts see barriers to implementing faster payments and real-time interbank settlement. Aaron McPherson, vice president, research operations at Mercator Advisory Group, said the Fed's strategies now under review will have far-reaching effects on consumers, businesses and financial institutions.

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As the 2018 holiday season gets underway, Adobe Digital Insights predicts a significant uptick in ecommerce spending. ADI’s report, titled 2018 Digital Trends in Retail and published Nov. 8, 2018, projects $504 billion in overall ecommerce holiday spending. ADI researchers say the forecast reflects consistent 14.8 percent year-over-year growth. ADI researchers advise retailers to optimize the customer experience by delivering real-time, relevant content and messaging on an ongoing basis. These capabilities will also help retailers manage holiday transaction flows and convert shoppers to buyers, they stated.

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We posted a news story on the recent Money20/20 conference, "Money20/20 grows up, looks ahead," on Oct. 26, 2018. Here are further perspectives and insights offered to The Green Sheet by industry leaders during the event, which organizers aptly described as a gathering place for financial professionals to interact and forge long-lasting professional relationships. "This is not a customer acquisition show," said Christopher R. Kronenthal, president and chief technology officer at FreedomPay. "This conference is about engaging in conversations with the world's commerce leaders."

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Based on data published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and posted online in near-real time by Worldometers.com, 2, 220,185 new book titles have been published so far this year. What does that have to do with payments, you might ask?

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Amid the proliferation of EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visa) use cases across North America, the U.S. Payments Forum released guidelines for dual-interface contact/contactless card issuance, Canadian card acceptance and mass transit service implementation. Randy Vanderhoof, director of the U.S. Payments Forum, said the guides, published Oct. 31, 2018, are designed to aid EMV implementation and address frequently asked questions.

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