> It's harder to "steal" a chip card since the information is not sitting on an easy-to-read mag-stripe. It's not clear that chip cards would have avoided the Target thing since the fraudsters infiltrated the terminal software. I'm guessing more current terminals/software is simply harder to compromise. "Chip & pin", as is widely used in places such as Canada and Europe, might help a bit since you would need the PIN to shop off-line. But it would have minimal effect for online shopping since PIN is typically not requested.
Limiting the fraud to online only would have greatly reduced the potential damage. There was a reason why carders were making physical cards to use, it's muuuch easier to get a transaction through. Address verification and CVV (not part of Target's dump because it's not on the mag stripe and is not collected by Target) would catch anyone using a stolen number online.
Limiting the fraud to online only would have greatly reduced the potential damage. There was a reason why carders were making physical cards to use, it's muuuch easier to get a transaction through. Address verification and CVV (not part of Target's dump because it's not on the mag stripe and is not collected by Target) would catch anyone using a stolen number online.