How secure are bank accounts?

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Recent innovations in credit card security and online transactions has made everyone’s bank account safer… or has it?

“Chip-N-Pin” Credit Cards have begun to make their way to the U.S. “Chip-N-Pin” cards are a new type of EMV (Europay, MasterCard, or Visa) smart card, originally started in England and Ireland. The chip inside the card replaces the magnetic strip across the back. The card is put into a “Point-of-Sale”, or POS, terminal. The cardholder then enters a 4-digit PIN number to authenticate the card. Since 1992, card fraud in France has decreased by over 80%. But hackers have finally caught up to credit card companies, and are staying one step ahead.

In an article recently released by Kim Zetter, a writer for Wired.com, points out the newly discovered flaws in these chip cards. In the UK, the card cannot recognize transactions in non-UK currencies. Because of this, cards can be tricked into approving transactions up to 999,999.99 dollars, euros, yen, etc.

To make things worse, some hackers have created card readers on their phones. Since the card only needs to be near the POS terminal to complete the transaction, the thief only needs to bump or set their phone on the victims wallet. Researchers say, transactions such as this would take less than a second to approve.

To pressure companies into installing the POS terminals, Visa has given companies a deadline of October 1, 2015 to comply with the use of the new EMV cards. Any company that doesn’t install an EMV reader could be liable for fraudulent transactions on cards stolen from them. Visa has denied the flaw as being an actual concern, and that cards couldn’t be hacked outside of a “laboratory environment”.

When it comes to internet transactions, Snapchat has created their own form of currency transfer, known as Snapcash.

Now, before we go thinking that this is a very bad idea, let’s look at the good:

All transactions are managed by Square, a company that provides tools to businesses to complete transactions, so the transfer of money, for the most part, is secure. Also, you must be 18 or older to use this feature on Snapchat.

On the other hand,  Snapchat is renowned for being hacked. So there is a chance for people’s confidential information to be released.

Another form of up and coming online currency is something known as “Darkcoin”.

Darkcoin (DRK) is an open-sourced, privacy-centric digital currency. Darkcoins allows you to keep your finances private while you make transactions. The Darkcoin is the stealthier version the Bitcoin, a similar form of encrypted digital currency.

Since Darkcoins keep users almost completely anonymous,  they have helped in growing the “dark web drug economy”, as stated by Andy Greenberg, writer for Wired.com.

These online drug trafficking sites are now accepting Darkcoin, because of its anonymity,  to purchase narcotics, synthetic stimulants, and even fake currency.

Since the cryptomarket is constantly changing, new forms of payments may use features like peer-to-peer selling, to help better protect transactions from surveillance.

In the the end, this recent innovations have helped change the world of money; it just ask depends on how you use them.

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