Month: July 2019

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The news of the Capital One data breach comes just as Equifax paid a $700 million fine for its 2017 incident. And this undoubtedly will have consumers and businesses more on edge about the security of their financial data.

Capital One Data Breach

Even though the perpetrator of this crime was arrested, it wasn’t due to Capital One or the authorities. The theft of the data took place on March 22 and 23, 2019. However, no one knew about it until a tipster warned Capital One its data may have been leaked. This was on July 17, almost four months after the fact.

This further highlights the need for everyone to keep an eye on their financial records on a regular basis.

You can set five minutes a week to go through your records to make sure your data hasn’t been compromised. Those five minutes will save a lot of headaches. Headaches that can last for months or even years if someone steals your information and destroys your credit.

As this case clearly points out, you can’t depend on these companies to monitor your data at all times. After all, they have hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers around the world. You are the only one that can give your data the attention it deserves.

The best you can hope for is for a quick reaction once an organization finds out. And in the case of Capital One that is exactly what it did.

So, What Happened?

As the Justice Department says in the release, these are just allegations and a person is innocent until proven guilty.

According to the Justice Department, a Seattle tech worker named Paige A. Thompson (aka erratic) posted the theft of information from Capital One on GitHub. On July 17, 2019, a user saw the post and alerted Capital One on its Responsible Disclosure Program.

Capital One verified the information on July 19, 2019, and it alerted the FBI. The FBI was then able to identify Thompson as the person who posted the content. Agents then executed a warrant at her residence and they seized devices which contained copy of the data.

Thompson was able to exploit a misconfigured web application firewall that enabled access to the data.

For its part, Capital One says, “We immediately addressed the configuration vulnerability and verified there are no other instances in our environment. Among other things, we also augmented our routine automated scanning to look for this issue on a continuous basis.”

If guilty, Thompson can face up to five years in prison along with a $250,000 fine.

You can take a look at the complaint below.

Thompson Complaint by jonathan_skillings on Scribd

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The Stolen Data

Capital One says the victims in this crime total 100 million individuals in the U.S. and another 6 million in Canada

The majority of the information comes from consumers and small businesses who applied for credit card products from 2005 through early 2019. The information includes names, addresses, zip codes/postal codes, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and self-reported income.

Thompson also allegedly obtained portions of credit card customer data; customer status data such as credit scores, credit limits, balances, payment history, contact information; and fragments of transaction data from a total of 23 days during 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The company goes on to say this didn’t affect bank account or Social Security numbers. However, it did affect around 140,000 Social Security numbers of its credit card customers and roughly 80,000 linked bank account numbers of its secured credit card customers.

In Cananda, 1 million social insurance numbers were stolen.

Capital One will notify all affected individuals and make free credit monitoring and identity protection available to them.

In the end, Capital One says this incident will end up costing the company anywhere from $100 to $150 million in 2019.

You Have to be Proactive

The threat to all financial institutions is a relentless attack which takes place 24/7/365. And eventually, people will break through.

Before this happens, you have to take matters into your own hands. This means being proactive in the protection of your digital data. Monitor your credit report with all three agencies, update the software on your computing device with the latest version, and change your passwords on a regular basis.

These are just a few of the things you can do, but if you want to take additional measures the Federal Trade Commission has a guide you can follow here.

Image: Capital One

This article, “How the Capital One Data Breach Could Affect Your Small Business” was first published on Small Business Trends

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Thanks to http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SmallBusinessTrends/~3/2bNtxPEMu9o/keep-payment-processing-fees-low-with-these-tips.html

Accepting online payments and multiple forms of payment is the norm for most small businesses today. The few business that don’t accept multiple forms of payment are no doubt missing out on additional sales and revenue.

We already know that people want to pay for goods and services that offer convenience and value, but it’s also convenient to make the payment process smooth and efficient. When you offer convenient payment methods, it does come with a price…literally.

Small business owners usually pay a fee when accepting credit card payments. While sites like PayPal and Stripe can also help you get paid quickly online, they charge a fee per transaction as well. To keep your business going and preserve your cash flow, the best thing you can do is balance out payment processing fees.

Ways to Manage or Lower Payment Processing Fees

Here are 4 easy ways to do it.

1. Choose a Low-Fee Payment Processing System

This seems like an obvious solution, but you probably wouldn’t believe how many people are overpaying for payment processing fees. According to Investopedia, payment fees typically cost between 0.05% – 5% of the transaction amount, plus $0.20 to $0.30 per transaction.

When choosing your payment processing software, it’s important to compare a variety of features but really focus on the transaction fees. They may seem small but they add up if you’re going to be accepting multiple payments throughout the month. You can save literally hundreds (or more) in fees per month by choosing as low-fee payment processing system.

2. Factor Fees Into Your Pricing

When you know how much fees you’re going to be paying per purchase or invoice, see if you can factor those into your pricing. Small businesses that sell goods do this all the time. This is why there is usually a purchase minimum when you make a credit card payment.

The business has to pay a fee to accept your payment so they might as well make sure it’s worth it by requiring you meet the minimum spending limit. Another option would be to slightly raise the price of your good and services to balance out payment processing fees.

If you’re sending invoices, ask clients if you can factor in the price of the fee when you send your payment request. I work with a contractor who does this and I don’t mind paying for the fee at all as I enjoy working with this person.

 3. Negotiate a Lower Fee

This is a lesser known way to balance out payment processing fees, but it can still work. Try asking your payment processing company if they can lower your fees and see what they say.

Try to leverage what benefits you can especially if your business makes a certain amount of revenue each year. If you can promise them a specific number of transactions, they may be willing to work with you and lower your fee.

If you like one company’s features but wish their fees could be lower, scope out the competition and see if they will match a competitor’s lower fee structure so you can still use them. While there are no guarantees, doing this is definitely worth a shot.

4. Accept Multiple Forms of Payment

Every business transaction you do doesn’t have to be via credit or debit card. Depending on your business, you can also encourage customers and clients to pay in cash or via check and just keep track of your payments for tax purposes.

As a freelancer, I get paid in a variety of ways. I do accept credit card payments to accommodate clients who wish to use them, but I also have a few clients who pay via check and direct deposit.

Not paying fees in order to receive a portion of my income really helps me balance out payment processing fees when I do have them.

Summary

Paying fees to accept a wide variety of payments for your business is inevitable. Still, you have options when it comes to lowering and managing those fees.

Take your time when it comes to choosing a payments system and compare the fee terms. Also, be open to adjusting your prices and accepting other forms of payment.

Republished by permission. Original here

Image: Due.com

This article, “Keep Payment Processing Fees Low with these Tips” was first published on Small Business Trends

Thanks to http://youtu.be/n9mt1B4El7k