Visa Asia Pacific announced this morning that it has launched the Verified by Visa service in China.

In a press release this morning, Gartner reports that it estimates 7 million US adults were victims of identity theft in the 12 month period ending June 2003, a 79 per cent increase over results from a survey of consumers conducted in February 2002.

Visa International has announced the launch of a new smart card costing US$1.98.

The new card -- called the GP-Entry card -- conforms to the GlobalPlatform specifications and has 8K of EEPROM memory and a Visa payment application that supports major authentication technologies, such as Static Data Authentication (SDA) and Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA). It is specifically designed for Visa member banks looking to implement a GlobalPlatform card with basic functionality. There are currently nine card products in the program supporting DES and PK security with a variety of ROM and EEPROM memory sizes. Prices range from $1.98 for a GlobalPlatform card supporting DDA with 8K of EEPROM to $3.47 for a GlobalPlatform dual interface card also supporting DDA with 16K of EEPROM. The program also includes a static/native card priced at less than a dollar. All prices are based on white plastic cost and include the Visa Smart Debit/Credit (VSDC) application in ROM.