U.S. Lags Europe on Credit Card Security
We can be as patriotic as we want to be, but today, the US lags behind other countries in credit card technology and consumer safety. Our current-day magnetic-strip technology is archaic compared to the chip-embedded cards of our European counterparts. Though some larger US retailers are offering support of the “smart-chip” cards, a mandate for their use (and greater protection for the consumer) is down the road. (Click here for the original story on NPR).
According to Andrea Rock, a senior editor at Consumer Reports who wrote an article about the security gap in the credit card industry (emphasis mine):
“The account information that’s needed to make a transaction on American cards is stored, unencrypted, on a magnetic stripe on the back of each card,”
And that means, until the industry changes, you are at risk. In the mean time, here are a few steps you can take to increase your security:
