President Obama Signs "Buy Secure" Initiative
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Executive order will implement EMV security measures to safeguard consumer transaction data.
On October 17, President Barack Obama signed an executive order as the first step in the “Buy Secure” initiative, designed to hasten the universal adoption of EMV chip-and-PIN cards in the U.S.
The White House Blog explains that the initiative “takes critical steps to protect consumers’ financial security and improve confidence in the marketplace.” This Executive Order helps victims of identity theft, improves payment security of government agencies, and accelerates the transition to more-secure payment technologies and the development of new payment security tools.
As part of the announcement, President Obama also urged Congress to establish cybersecurity legislation to protect American citizens — a move he called long overdue — with an emphasis on the clarification of responsibilities in the case of data breaches.
The blog states: “The President's Executive Order will be an important step in making Americans safer by securing their payments to and from the federal government through chip-and-PIN technology. This new technology will apply to both new and existing credit cards issued by the General Services Administration to government employees, as well as debit cards issued as part of benefit programs like Direct Express. It will also upgrade retail payment card terminals at federal agency facilities to accept chip-and-PIN-enabled cards.”
Many retailers are supporting the initiative, and Home Depot, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart each will be introducing secure chip-and-PIN payment terminals in stores by early 2015. In addition, American Express will be launching a new program in February designed to support the POS terminal upgrades of small businesses, and Visa is initiated an nationwide public service education campaign on secure technologies, scheduled to be offered in 20 cities nationwide.
According to the Credit Union Times, the National Retail Federation (NRF) has applauded President Obama’s new initiative, stating that the NRF plans to collaborate with merchants in order to improve data security. Matthew Shay, president and CEO of NRF, comments, “We applaud the administration for taking proactive and positive steps by adopting PIN and chip technology for government-issued debit and credit cards, among other things.”
Shay said that the NRF is committed to applying the appropriate responses to cyber theft prevention, and explains, “This is not an issue about large retail versus small, or global financial institutions versus community banks and credit unions, or the federal government versus municipalities. We all stand together in seeking solutions to prevent criminals from accessing personal financial data regarding our customers, investors, and citizens through preventable data breaches.”