Ten percent of U.K. adults (approximately 5 million people) have canceled a payment card within the last year due to attempted cyberfraud, according to a new study.

The current figure represents an increase of a half-million cardholders from 2016, according to the price comparison website comparethemarket.com. The most frequent point at which fraud takes place is during the payment process.

In a survey of 2,000 adults, the price comparison website found not only that accounts are being hacked, but also that significant amounts of money are being stolen from these accounts in many cases.

Of the 37 percent of survey respondents who reported having money stolen from accounts, the average amount taken was 544 pounds (approximately $725).

Despite this, only 12 percent of people whose accounts were hacked in the last 12 months have changed their debit or credit card provider, compared with two-thirds (68 percent) who have not considered, or have no intention of changing accounts.

Comparethemarket said that the regularity of fraud is becoming a worrying trend, as more than one third (35 percent) of those hacked in the last year have been victims of card fraud previously.

(Atmmarketplace)

Cash still dominates at the point of sale in Europe, accounting for more than three quarters of all in store transactions in the euro area last year, according to an ECB study.

Despite the hype surrounding contactless cards and mobile wallets, 79% of transactions at the point of sale were carried out using cash last year, amounting to 54% of the total value of payments. In contrast, cards were used for just 19% of transactions and made up 39% of the value of payments.

The data shows a geographical divide: southern euro area countries, as well as Germany and Austria, made more than 80% of POS payments with cash in 2016, while Northern nations such as the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland saw cash usage around the 50% mark.

Men tend to use cash more than women and the older more than the younger, although there is no difference between levels of education.

The high levels of cash usage comes despite the fact that most people say that they prefer to pay by card. The ECB suggests that this contradiction may be explained by the fact that nearly two thirds of payments are under EUR15 and contactless transactions are still fairly rare in many countries.

This leaves open the possibility that cash really could fall out of favour in the near future as contactless cards and the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay pick up, something that has already been seen to some extent in the UK and Australia.

Finally, the study also shows that cash is still used as a store of value, with almost a quarter of people in the euro zone keeping some at home as a precautionary reserve.


– Finextra –

On 31st October 2017, MK Group was  granted the  license for trading civil cryptography products of Prim’X high-grade encryption solutions for organizations, individuals in the fields of finance, insurance, telecommunication, transportation, education, electricity, communications, construction, petroleum, technology and state agencies.

MK Group was licensed to provide 05 following encryption solutions from Prim’X (France) to civil sectors in Vietnam:
• ZoneCentral protects files and folders wherever they might be. Depends on information infrastructure of organizations, ZoneCentral will encrypt fixed and mobile workstations, file servers with flexible and robust configuration.
For encrypted files, only authorized and identified users have access.

• Cryhod is an anti-theft encryption solution for laptops, which allows encryption of entire disks and/or partitions of all mobile workstation of organizations. The solution allows users to have free choice of authentication method: password or certificate, thereby making it more flexible and easier to deploy.
Cryhod hard disk encryption solution will shield your business from the risk of theft or loss or disclosure of stored information when the laptop is stolen, especially for people travelling a lot.

• ZonePoint is an ideal solution to secure all documents by the encryption of all documents placed in SharePoint libraries and managing the need-to-know. This solution allows companies to manage the security of their documents by specifying an encryption policy for their document libraries on Microsoft SharePoint. In addition, organizations can use SharePoint server on the Cloud without worrying about the risk of data loss.
ZonePoint is the ideal choice for organizations that want to share encrypted data internally or with external partners.

• Zed! is equipped with the ability to encrypt files to ensure security when exchanging files. The advantage of the solution is the capability to transfer entire file structure without the limitations of storage. With different access key formats, Zed! uses the key, either in the form of passwords, agreed upon with a correspondent, or in the form of RSA certificates (certificate files or LDAP directory).
The outstanding feature of Zed! is the password wallet managed by Zed! to assist the sender to create a password for the specific correspondent, in case the sender has no certificate. This makes the deployment of the solution simpler and more convenient.

• ZedMail is developed based on the basis of Zed! file encryption, suitable for all businesses and organizations with the ability to encrypt the body of the messages and any email attachments. The solution is integrated in the corporate email tool automatically and transparently without any impact on the operation of the organizations as well as email experience of users.
ZedMail is also integrated with password wallet so that ZedMail automatically generates a password for specific correspondent and stores it in a secure password wallet that manages for the user in case there are no certificates available for the email recipient.

All Prim’X high-grade encryption solutions are awarded EAL3+ certification and Standard Qualification by the ANSSI (French Network and Information Security Agency) and NATO Restricted and EU Restricted.

With the motto “Encrypt everything, anywhere and always”, Prim’X encryption solutions provide secure and efficient data encryption solution to protect organization’s data against loss, theft, disclosure and economic espionage, whether the user is at the office or on the move.

MK Group is the sole partner in Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia and Myanmar of Prim’X Technologies, the leading provider of software solutions for information system and data encryption in France.

UnionPay International, a subsidiary of China’s UnionPay, the country’s largest bank card payment processor, announced Monday that it has entered into strategic cooperation with the Portuguese bank, Banco Comercial Portugues (BCP).

BCP will be the first European bank to issue UnionPay cards.

UnionPay is used in 160 countries and regions and cards are issued in over 40 countries and regions, said Wang Lixin, deputy president of UnionPay International.

“Currently, UnionPay cards are mainly issued in the Asia Pacific region. We are stepping up localization in Europe. Besides BCP, we are also working with financial organizations in Germany and France,” Wang said.

BCP operates in countries including Portugal, Poland, Switzerland, Mozambique and Angola. In 2016, Shanghai-based Fosun became the largest share holder of BCP after acquiring a 16.7 percent stake in the Portuguese lender.

Fosun’s financial arm said it will help more Chinese companies to develop payment, investment and loan business with overseas partners.

Gu Xiaoxu, president of Fosun Financial, said the cooperation is an important step of financial services developing under the Belt and Road Initiative.

China is Portugal’s largest trade partner in Asia. Chinese enterprises are investing more in Portugal and an increasing number of Chinese people are living in the country.

– Xinhua.net –