Some of America’s largest corporations, like Target, Home Depot, Michaels, and Neiman Marcus, have been in the news recently for credit card breaches. Since data breaches started making headlines, there have been some misconceptions forming about fraud in the payment processing industry. Here are 5 card data breach myths and the truth about this type of fraud:

1. Data breaches only happen to big retailers.

False! Although the larger corporations like Home Depot, Target, and Walmart end up in the news, it’s the smaller businesses that actually experience more data breaches. In fact, 80% of all breaches happen to small businesses that process $10,000 a month or less. It’s important for small business owners to stay educated about fraud in order to keep their business and customers safe.

2. Countering specific attacks erases the possibility of repeat attacks.

False! No matter how much money a corporation may try to spend 소액결제현금화  on responding to specific attacks, there are always other loopholes and avenues hackers can go down in order to steal data. A company that experiences a data breach may double their budget for security purposes, but doubling a budget does not equal double the security. According to Kroll Cyber Security, properly training employees to handle consumer data, periodically assessing risk, and staying up-to-date with security software are better ways to prevent repeat attacks.

3. Data breaches are always large volume.

False! Data breaches can come in any volume amount. Smaller amounts are harder for consumers to catch, so hackers often try to be inconspicuous in order to get away with theft. These are called ‘micro purchases’ and are often $20 or less. If statements and data are not closely monitored, these micro purchases can add up to be a great loss to consumers and your business!

4. Monitoring prevents breaches.

False! Credit and identity monitoring does not prevent breaches; it only catches them after the incident. According to Kroll, a few ways to actually prevent fraudulent attacks are to: educate employees on how to take sensitive data, only take the minimum information from customers that you need to process payments, assess how you store data, and create an extensive plan in case a breach occurs to minimize loss.

5. New EMV chip cards will completely eliminate fraud.

False! There is still a chance of fraudulent attacks on consumers and businesses, but the new EMV chip cards will certainly boost security in the payment world. Since the chip cards create unique, dynamic data for every transaction, card-present, point-of-sale transactions will be much more difficult to hack. Unfortunately, card-not-present and instances where a consumer’s card data may be stored, like a retailer’s website, will still be vulnerable. Phishing scams, for example, will still be on the rise even with the implementation of EMV chip cards.