Card-skimming attacks are on the rise, not just at ATMs, but also at points of sale. For the petrol and convenience stores industries, most of the pain is being felt at the pump, namely the self-service pay-at-the-pump.
Taylor, a security and compliance expert for the National Association of Convenience Stores, says the primary reason for the rise in pay-at-the-pump skimming attacks relates to the security measures retailers have implemented elsewhere in the payments chain. They've taken steps to lock down point-of-sale systems within their stores, ensuring networks are complying with data-security standards, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. So fraudsters have adjusted their targets, aiming for the lowest hanging fruit: unattended self-service terminals.
"The retail community is forcing these gangs to move downstream, to more contact where they can collect data," Taylor says.
Merchants are taking precautions to fight the growing number of skimming attacks the industry continues to face, but there is only so much they can do. "We're spending billions of dollars every year, the merchants, trying to fix a broken system, and at some point, we have to make the choice that this just can't be fixed and needs to be revamped, and I think we're getting there," Taylor says. "The mag-stripe, because it is there on the card and because you can now use that track 2 data to buy things online, now we have to secure this entire data system around it. ... It's a broken system."
Source: Bank Info Security
