Regions

Target, a credit card payment platform, announced investing $100 million for safer technology to be used for payments after 40 million customers’ credit and debit cards were hacked.

The company has revealed its intended plans of getting a chip-based credit card technology as a safer means of making payments compared to the magnetic stripes used in the US. By September of this year, the new chip-and-PIN terminals can be accessed in 1800 stores in the country.

Thieves find it easier to duplicate Credit Cards through magnetic stripes. However, with a PIN used to verify a cardholder’s identity, the cards become more secured to use.

“Chip-embedded cards support dynamic authentication whereas data on mag stripe cards is static. Thus, data from traditional mag stripe cards can be easily copied (skimmed) with a simple and inexpensive card reading device,” said a fraud reduction research.

This kind of method for secured payment was used in Europe for a number of years including France, which began chip-and-PIN usage in 1992.