According to this, Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode are by far the most widespread authentication solutions, with 80% of businesses which participate in at least one Consumer Authentication program using these methods.

"According to the 2014 Consumer Authentication Survey released by CardinalCommerce, at least 75% of issuers, gateways and card associations support Consumer Authentication programs. More than 66% of acquirers and payment service providers along with more than half of fraud vendors and ecommerce platforms also support Consumer Authentication."

"When it comes to merchants, the reports shows that almost half of those surveyed were merchants currently using Consumer Authentication. 90% of respondents who use a Consumer Authentication program believe the program is somewhat to highly valuable. Only 3% overall stated that Consumer Authentication has no value. 81% of merchants are happy with their Consumer Authentication solution. Additionally, for those that are using it already, once it is implemented as a technique in their program they tend to stick with it."

"Larger merchants are more likely to use Consumer Authentication. They are also the most likely to support Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode. Amongst merchants with an annual revenue greater than USD 50 million, 93% support Verified by Visa and 83% MasterCard SecureCode. Smaller merchants are more likely to use alternative forms of authentication, such as e-mail verification or Google Authenticator."

"The survey mentions that amongst merchants currently not using Consumer Authentication, 20% are concerned with the effect it might have on sales conversion and 13% worry about changing the user experience. Almost 1/3 of respondents not using Consumer Authentication have concerns about its impact on users and conversion."

According to this, cybercriminals all over the world are trying harder than ever to acquire confidential user data and steal money from bank accounts by creating fake websites and web pages imitating financial organizations or internet resources.

"According to data from threat management solutions developer Kaspersky Lab, this fraudulent scheme, also knows as phishing, targeted more financial institutions in 2013, when the number of attacks on banking websites, online stores and e-payment systems increased to 31.45% from the 22.95% recorded in 2012."

"The same source unveils that in 2013, in the Philippines, banks were the most attractive targets, which accounted for 70.6 % of all financial phishing activities, a sharp increase from the 52% recorded in 2012. Overall, the number of phishing attacks targeting banks almost doubled from 11.92% in 2012 to 22.2% in 2013. On the other hand, the number of attacks on online stores increased insignificantly by 8.5 percentage points while those targeting payment systems dropped by 2.63 percentage points."

According to this, security experts have discovered an application which attempts to monitor communications on Android smartphones.

"The application, called iBanking, is able to spy on phone calls and SMSs on Android phones and tricks users into installing a fake Facebook application. Once installed, it demands a phone number so that hackers can take over a user's bank account."

"This bot is extremely invasive, because hackers are able to listen to calls been made, intercept SMS messages and even listen to private conversations."

"Some of the warning signs include the fact that the application is hosted on a third-party website and is riddled with spelling and grammar errors."

Startup writes: "Global payments giant Mastercard today announced the launch of a new retail accelerator, set to give a group of European start-ups the tools they need to achieve rapid growth."

Twitter and Amazon have paired up for an e-commerce program called #AmazonCart. Now, users who sync up their Twitter and Amazon accounts can add items to their Amazon shopping cart simply by tweeting about them.

"#AmazonCart only works when users reply to a tweet with an Amazon product link. That means tweeting “I want Nike shoes!! #AmazonCart” won’t magically put a pair of Air Jordans in your account. Using #AmazonCart does not let users buy the item directly from Twitter. (Nor are you charged automatically after posting an #AmazonCart tweet.) Instead, users log into Amazon later to complete the purchase. The @MyAmazon account will send a follow-up reply tweet updating users about the status of their item."

"This e-commerce partnership highlights how eager both parties are to forge connections between social networks and online retailers, but the program itself is odd. The big idea is that people who use Amazon and Twitter are regularly finding stuff they want to buy in their Twitter feed, but it’s too inconvenient to switch over to Amazon to make that purchase. Not sure how many of those people exist, but OK. "

"I suspect both Twitter and Amazon are overestimating how many people would want this service. It doesn’t sound like it will be all that convenient, since users will still have to go to Amazon’s website to make the actual purchase, and it requires that people publicly place items in their carts. Also, Twitter users may be more annoyed than excited by #AmazonCart if it primarily ends up increasing the number of tweets about products from retailers in their feed."

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