Business owners and Customers show little concern
Perhaps the most noticeable fallout from Target’s massive credit card security breach last year is how little impact it had on small business owners. Data protection, a recent poll reveals, is still on the back burner for small business owners—who have barely any interest in the Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) chips that are reputed to be a more secure choice than the normal magnetic-strip credit cards.
Even customers seem to be in large shrugging off the recent credit card security breaches. A recent poll indicated that of 1,400 customers that responded only 33% were concerned with their credit card security. Over a 2/3 majority of customers questioned were not aware of the alternative EMV chip credit cards.
Two new Credit Card Information Leaks
Two more businesses have been breached and have had their credit card data compromised. Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. and J.M. Smucker Co. both have shut down their online stores in response to compromised credit card information.
Sally Beauty has over 2,000 stores across the United States and early reports peg the number of compromised credit cards at over 280,000. Smuckers, a famous jam and jelly company, was also afflicted with a malware program that stole customer information prior to encryption. The malware was in contrast to the more direct attacks on Sally Beauty.
Both companies have shut down their online stores and are hiring independent investigators to look into the attacks. Yet even in the wake of Target’s credit card crisis and with more recognizable brands falling victim on a consistent basis, customers and small business owners appear to have their attention fixed on other issues than credit card security.