Outdated Magnetic Strips: How U.S. Credit Card Security Lags --- Criminals may have stolen information from 40 million credit and debit cards used at Target. A possible weakness? The magnetic stripe on credit cards — which fraudsters can pull credit card numbers and expiration dates from to make counterfeit cards. --- Other countries moved beyond this technology years ago. The U.K., Canada and Hong Kong are already using chip-based cards, which are considered more secure. (Magnetic stripe technology is decades old.) Cards using the chip-and-PIN system have an embedded microchip. Instead of swiping the part with a magnetic stripe, you put the card into a terminal, then enter a PIN or sign your name. It's more expensive for criminals to forge these cards, says Brian Krebs, a security journalist who writes for Krebs on Security and broke the story on the breach at Target. -- Target didn't give details on how the breach occurred. But Krebs, citing credit card industry sources, reported that it involved "the theft of data stored on the magnetic stripe of cards used at the stores." -- The newer chip-and-PIN technology "simply raises the costs for the bad guys," Krebs told NPR. "It's not that they can't break the system — but it makes it more expensive for them to fabricate these cards." -- Visa and MasterCard have plans to introduce these cards in the U.S. in around two years. But why hasn't the U.S. already adopted this technology? - More, NPR, at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/12/19/255558139/outdated-magnetic-strips-how-u-s-credit-card-security-lags