Turns Out Square Isn't Secure Enough For Its Big Fancy New Partner, VISA (V, PAY)

Mobile payments startup Square plans to make all of its dongles encrypt credit card data on the fly, a Square exec said at a conference. This is after Square said in response to accusations from competitor Verifone that it doesn't need to encrypt credit card data.

Square is doing this to conform to Visa's new set of mobile application best practices. Those new best practices were released yesterday, just as it was announced that Visa made a strategic investment in Square. So in other words, Visa made Square add encryption to its dongle.

This must be a bummer for Square, because it has to design and build new dongles all over again. Moreover, we assume that the chips that will be needed to encrypt credit card data will be more costly than what the current dongle has, which should be costly -- Square gives away the dongles and makes money from a commission on each transaction.

Just to be clear: even without encrypting credit card data, Square is by all accounts fully compliant with all industry regulations. So it's not like there's this huge gaping security hole with Square. But their new big and  important partner evidently feels that they have to beef up their security.

Now You Should Read: Why Square Will Need To Ditch The Dongle →

For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Visa Invests Big Money In Square, Even Though Square Probably Wants To Kill Visa
• PayPal Buys Another Startup To Beat Google, Apple And Square In The Mobile Payments Race
• Square COO Explains Why The Web Is Dead

Turns Out Square Isn't Secure Enough For Its Big Fancy New Partner, VISA (V, PAY)

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/S11NcjpapPw/square-security-encryption-2011-4

The Radar: LP's Top Countries for 2011, TSA Secure Flight Policy, Places You'll Never Visit

• Hope you wrote that bucket list in pencil. Lonely Planet has culled the knowledge of its in-house travel experts to put together an "it-list" of top ten countries to visit in 2011. Coming in at number one is Albania, the off-the-radar Balkans' country stepping-out with a new tourist motto, "Albania: A New Mediterranean Love." Rounding off the list: Brazil, Cape Verde, Panama, Bulgaria, Vanuatu, Italy, Tanzania, Syria, and Japan. [Lonely Planet]

• On Monday, TSA's Secure Flight program took full effect meaning all travelers making airline reservations-- whether booking online, over-the-phone, or with a travel agent--must provide complete passenger data before a boarding pass will be issued. TSA will use this data (name, date of birth, and gender) to conduct an identity check and cross-reference with the no-fly list. Read more on TSA's website, but the most important thing to remember is the name on your reservation must match the name on your government-issued ID. [IndependentTraveler.com]

• Inspired by Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia, Flavorwire put together a list of "10 Books About Places You'll Never Visit." Sounds like a challenge. [Flavorwire]
  

Got Radar? Tag your favorite travel stories from the web #ngtradar and follow us on Twitter @NatGeoTraveler and @IntelligentTrav.

Photo: Elenita Roshi/MyShot

Post originale: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/intelligenttravel/2010/11/the-radar-lps-top-countries-fo.html