Florence Olsen reports in FCW.com about e-signature usage by governmental agencies -- and some new approaches they're taking. READ MORE »

Barnaby Feder reports in the New York Times on facial recognition technology.

Despite growing acceptance, there is still a huge gap between the hype about the promise of face recognition technology and the results when it is put to the test.

Larry Dignan reports in Baseline on the Corporate Information Security Accountability Act of 2003, legislation introduced last fall by Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.).

In the name of protecting national infrastructure, you may be asked to conduct annual security audits, produce an inventory of key assets and their vulnerabilities, carry cybersecurity insurance and even have your security measures verified by independent third parties, if the core features of the proposed legislation make it to the floor of the House.

The GAO has issued a report (PDF) that is critical of security at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Jeremy Wagstaff blogs some advice for banks in dealing with phishing attacks.

A brief article in CSO Magazine reports on the shift in how courts are viewing liability with respect to certain "foreseeable events".

Security breaches have never been more highly scrutinized by the courts and regulators, and they are redefining what companies should have seen coming—be it a stolen aircraft or a computer virus. Implementing the right policies, procedures and technology now can limit your company's liability in the future.

Anyone involved in protecting personal financial information of any kind should tune into what's happening with respect to higher standards being required to avoid potential downstream liability.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit in federal court to halt an effort that drained millions of dollars out of thousands of consumers’ checking accounts for “discount pharmacy cards” the consumers didn’t know about, didn’t order, and didn’t get. The Washington Post reports on this story in Friday's edition.

Merchant acquirer National Processing has announced it is reviewing strategic alternatives for the company, perhaps including the sale of the company. National Processing is 83 percent owned by National City Corp.

Jeremy Wagstaff reports in today's Wall St. Journal on the evolution in sophistication of phishing attacks (subscription reqd.) -- and the people that develop them.

By the way, Jeremy is also a very prolific weblogger. Check out his "Loose wire" blog.

Experian-Scorex and TSYS have announced an expanded partnership with the implementation of a new transaction fraud scoring model which is now embedded in the TSYS CardGuard fraud detection system.

Experian-Scorex designed the transaction fraud model using existing CardGuard members. The design process included the study of over 2000 attributes and extensive segmentation analysis. The score uses a combination of up-to-date historical information and a long-term profile of each customer to ensure accuracy and reliability.

We're proud to announce that Bryan Derman is the newest Glenbrook partner. READ MORE »

Glenbrook Partners' Russ Jones has published an opinion piece titled "Rethinking Online Marketing - The Impact of Phishing and Spam on Marketers".

Marketers have spent much of the last decade shifting the focus of their marketing campaigns from traditional channels to the Internet. While results were initially rewarding, with each passing month this new channel becomes noisier, more crowded, harder to manage, and substantially less effective. A new form of online fraud (phishing) and a HUGE surge in unsolicited email (spam) have combined to create the perfect storm for online marketers.

MasterCard Advisors has announced it is acquiring Watch Hill Partners. READ MORE »

Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig shares his frustration with how Chase handled his credit card account. Readers also add their comments on his experience.

The Stanford University Law School is hosting a conference on June 25 titled "How to Deal with the Uncertainties of Online Business". Speakers include executives from Visa International, Google, Yahoo!, Apple, Microsoft and partners from a number of law firms.

The FDIC has published a report by Prof. Neil Murphy that examines the impact of payment system changes underway on the US banking system (PDF). READ MORE »

The Technology Report in this morning's Wall St. Journal (subscription reqd) includes "A Dollar Here, A Dollar There...", a report on micropayments.

Wells Fargo has announced that it handled $3.8 billion in Internet payment volume for over 61,000 online merchants in the first quarter, up 50 percent over the same quarter last year. Wells Fargo is also PayPal's payment processor.

"According to figures published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Wells Fargo's e-commerce processing accounts for 15 percent of the nation's total online shopping volume."

Hiawatha Bray comments in today's Boston Globe on how the surge in phishing attacks is the best news yet in the war against spam.

But how is this good news in the fight against spam? It's obvious, really. The old-style spammers only made life difficult for Internet users and service providers. The phishermen are messing with the real big boys -- the nation's banks and credit card companies. Phishing could cost them billions, and scare consumers away from Internet commerce altogether. ''The banks and the big e-commerce companies are desperate for a solution," said Dave Jevans, chairman of APWG. And desperation backed by money is a powerful thing.

Meanwhile, Tumbleweed and the Anti-Phishing Working Group this morning announced a new "Phishing Attack Trends Report" for April 2004 reporting that email fraud and attacks grew by 180% during April, averaging 38 new attacks each day.

MasterCard and Oracle have announced a partnership that will allow MasterCard's enhanced transaction data to be integrated into selected applications within Oracle's E-Business Suite.

AP writer Brian Bergstein asks whether the identity theft protection services now available are the best approach to dealing with the problem. READ MORE »

Amey Stone reports in Business Week on how consumers can avoid becoming victims of phishing attacks.

The Register updates progress on the chip and PIN rollout underway in the UK.

Anne Eisenberg reports in the New York Times on Beepcard, a credit card with an unusual security feature: it works only when it recognizes the voice of its rightful owner.

Gerry Gilmour reports from Fargo, North Dakota on the shift from paper to plastic card payments.

McConn breaks down Alerus customers into three general demographic groups: the younger generation, which has fully embraced debit cards as a way of life; those in their 30s to 50s, who like their credit cards but are adjusting from checks to bank debit cards at the checkout; and older folks, who still prefer checks – and sometimes balance their checkbook in the checkout line.

Edgar, Dunn takes a look at the organizational silos in financial institutions and how some saavy bankers are pursuing enterprise-wide payments strategies that break those silos down.

Amanda Kooser reports in Entrepreneur on the uptick in Silicon Valley and, in particular, on BitPass as an example.

MasterCard VP Murdo Munro writes about mobile prepaid services and MasterCard's rePower payment solution.

The Economist says PayPal is turning into a huge online-payments business. READ MORE »

The PORTIA Project (Privacy, Obligations and Rights in Technologies of Information Assessment - funded by the National Science Foundation) is sponsoring a workshop on sensitive data in medical, financial and content-distribution systems at Stanford on July 8-9, 2004.