US Moving to Safer Payment Systems, Obama Says

“BuySecure”- a new initiative advocated by the US Presidency – will accelerate the adoption of EMV technology in US cards, thus, leading the way to safer payment transactions, according to an official White House announcement.

100 million Americans were affected by data breaches last year, the White House said. Driven by “America`s fastest-growing crime”, the President signed an Executive Order meant to strengthen security of credit, debit, and other type of payment cards by replacing outdated magnetic strip cards with EMV microchip technology.

The White House also said that all payment terminals at federal agencies will soon be equipped to accept embedded chip cards.

“The goal is not just to ensure the security of doing retail business with the government, but also, through this increased demand, to help drive the market towards swifter adoption of stronger security standards,” the White House press release reads. “Institutions like the United States Postal Service have already made this transition across tens of thousands of retail facilities across the country.”

As for retailers, Home Depot, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart are expected to roll out chip and PIN-compatible card terminals in all their stores by January 2015.

Starting next year, American Express and Visa will launch multi-million programs to educate and assist small business customers in upgrading their point of sale terminals. Also, as of this month, Target and Home Depot have completed the installation of chip and PIN readers in all their 1801, respectively 85000 stores. Walgreens has also updated its 8200 PoS systems to read the new cards, the press release says.

The President also announced it will ask the Congress to review cybersecurity legislation and clarify companies` obligations in data breach incidents.

The White House will organize a summit bringing together key stakeholders to raise awareness about secure authentication, share best practices, promote stronger security standards, and discuss next generation technologies.