Data security concerns are penetrating small businesses with more than 64 percent taking action within the last 12 months to better protect customer financial information, according to a new survey from Visa USA and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Although businesses are taking action, the issue is far from top of mind for business owners with 63 percent saying they rarely if at all worry about securing customer data.
    “Merchants are increasingly locking down customer data, but there is more work to be done,” said Rosetta Jones, Vice President, Visa USA. “The payments industry and merchants share common customers, a common payments system and common enemies on the fraud front. It’s vital that we work together to protect cardholders and this educational tour is one way we are doing that.”
    Most small businesses gave themselves strong grades on how well they are protecting customer data, with two-thirds (67 percent) giving themselves an ‘A’, some 27 percent rating themselves a ‘B’ and 5 percent giving themselves a ‘C’ or below. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants that grade to be higher.
    “Making the grade on data security, means 100 percent of businesses are earning an ‘A’,” said Sean Heather, Executive Director, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
    The survey also found that small retailers spend more resources preventing the theft of products and cash from their store (34 percent) than securing customer data (20 percent).
    Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) have made improvements to how their business protects customers’ personal information, including credit and debit card data, over the past 12 months, and nearly three-in-ten (29 percent) have done so in the last three months.
    Only 17 percent said they knew what magnetic stripe data was. Some 53 percent of retailers think their customers rarely, if at all, worry about their personal information.

    Google recently launched a checkout program designed to make transactions more secure.
    eBay subsidiary PayPal, which handles eBay and other payments, was the subject of a phishing scam that used PayPal’s own URL and web site to trick customers into handing over their financial details.
    The security breach inserted a fake error message into the PayPal web site warning users that their account had been disabled and redirecting them to a fake web site asking them to provide their login details.
    The Google answer to such scams is Google Checkout, which enables shoppers to create a login right from the merchant’s site with a single user name and password. The service conceals a buyer’s credit card number and provides reimbursements for unauthorized purchases. To prevent spam, phishing, etc., Google Checkout enables shoppers to choose whether or not to keep e-mail addresses confidential and whether or not to accept unsolicited e-mails (i.e., store promotions) from Google-affiliated online sites where they shop.