The Buy Secure Initiative and Data Fraud

The Government Takes On Identity Theft With The Buy Secure Initiative

Recent hacks to consumer data hacks to Target and Home Depot have exposed consumers to a “new normal” of credit card vulnerability in a changing landscape.

On October 17, 2014, President Barack Obama signed a new Executive Order into effect to help protect consumer financial security against identity theft in an increasingly digital world.

What does this mean for you?

The Buy Secure Initiative is meant to bring a new generation of technology to improve upon credit card technology by implementing a new Chip and PIN method.

The technology involves embedding microchips instead of magnetic strips as well as required PINs being input at the place of purchase during face-to-face transactions similar to how debit works.

The first adopter of the technology will be the federal government who will accept the new method, but is being picked up by private outlets such as credit card providers such as American Express and Visa (who must submit a plan to provide advanced security features by Jan. 1, 2015), as well as retail outlets like Target and Home Depot.

Not only does the order demand improved credit card usage, it aims to reduce the amount of time necessary for identity theft remediation for consumers when dealing with the Federal Trade Commission.

It will also involve setting forth a plan to adhere to 2011 rules that involve multi-levels of authentication for agencies making personal information available through digital applications.

The end game for consumers is to be as safe as possible while navigating a trickier world. While these new changes won’t make you totally safe,

There are things you can do to protect yourself from credit card fraud while the Buy Secure Initiative is being implemented:

• Shred old credit cards
• Don’t save your credit information on your computer and only shop on secure (SSL protected) websites
• Monitor your credit with free websites such as www.freecreditreport.com

We are experts in the topics of data destruction and identity theft. We bring our services on-site and are trained at media degaussing, hard drive destruction and document shredding. Contact us to help protect yourself from identity theft.