Credit Card Fraud, An Integral Part Of The World s Economy

In this modern era of technology, we extensively make use of virtual money. Credit and Debit cards have become an integral part of the world’s economy. Due to this extensive usage of cards, we have become a â€Å"cashless society†. We make use of credit cards to make online payments, to buy items at retailers and grocery stores; almost anywhere we go and purchase, we extensively make use of credit cards. This over dependency and usage of credit cards has given rise to new form of crime called the Credit Card fraud. Credit card fraud is the use of one person’s credit card information for the purpose of stealing, offers criminals one of the fastest routes to riches today. A recent survey showed that 10 % of the population here in the United†¦show more content†¦Thirdly, not only does credit card fraud usually remain undetected until long after the criminal has completed the crime, but also the law enforcement is lax(Credit Card Fraud: The Neglected Crime. (n.d.)). Talking about credit card fraud, every week seems to bring news of one or the other data breach at U.S retailer. First it was Target, then Neiman-Marcus, followed by Michaels, and now the hotel company White Lodging, which manages hotel franchises for chains such as Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood. The latest to join the list is Home Depot, which is an American Retailer of home improvement and construction products and services. Home Depot is the largest home improvement retailer in the United States with revenue of about 75 Billion USD (Statement 1. (n.d.)). Recently on September 8th, Home Depot confirmed that an estimated 56 Million payment through credit cards were exposed in the data breach at its U.S. and Canadian stores. The incident is larger than the Target Corp. breach, where 40 million credit and debit card details were compromised, but falls behind 2008 Heartland breach, in which an estimated 100 million cards were compromised. Home Depot further updated that the criminals involved in the cyber-attack against it used custom-built malware, which has not been used in other attacks. The malware was present on Home Depot s payment systems between April and September and was used to skim payment-card data (Statement 1. (n.d.)). The