High level data breaches are as much a part of the daily news cycle as what Kanye West tweets, who Justin Bieber sleeps with and what verbal garbage spews out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
It’s not that we can’t protect user data, it’s that businesses and financial regulators have a rather apathetic view of the problem. A few million credit card numbers stolen here, a few million there, and at the end of the day we end up with chipped cards touted as the answer to our woes that are proven to be just as hackable as the cards we were using previously.
This new card, dubbed ‘Motion Code’ is touted as the answer.
Two French banks are doing away with the static credit card number in exchange for numbers that change every hour. If stolen, the numbers would be quickly out of date, thus limiting damage when the worst happens. Think of it as a single use credit card, much like what ‘Privacy‘ and others offer, only for a physical card.
While it’s undoubtedly smart, it’s a band-aid to a much bigger problem. Luckily, the solution is already in our pockets.
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The future of safe credit card payments rests within your phone, tablet or watch. These digital wallets are the ultimate in consumer security as they typically involve hacking a highly secure phone before being able to access the prize inside. Once through, additional layers such as two-factor authentication, single-use credit card numbers, individual PINs, and even biometric security options could provide additional security.
Some of these things already exist, others will undoubtedly make their way to your device as usage expands.
In the future, a data breach could be met with a notification that your bank is sending you a new card, all while instantly updating the information in your phone and foregoing the physical object. This could even take place behind the scenes with automatically-rotating credit card numbers, or single-use solutions.
Google Pay, Apple Pay and others will revolutionize the way we make payments, and send money — not the financial institutions.
Until that happens, we’re left listening to how PIN, chips and (now) auto-rotating credit card numbers are the future, when what’s truly going to shift consumer behavior in the right direction rests right within the piece of technology we use more than any other: our phone.
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