In an op-ed for American Banker, Molly Wilkinson critiques the reasoning behind Wal-Mart’s lawsuit against Visa. Walmart alleges PINs are the most secure protection for transactions, but Visa has said the chain can’t allow PINs on transactions in which debit cards are chip-enabled. “Walmart's lawsuit overlooked security defects of using PIN,” Wilkinson says. “The average American keeps four cards in his or her wallet. … For those who would opt to have the same PIN, all accounts would be compromised in the case of a security breach.” Recent large-scale breaches all occurred after thieves stole PINs from store databases, whereas if a chip card data was stolen, the technology surrounding it would make it “nearly impossible” for thieves to successfully use the information for fraud, she adds.
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