A Look Back at 2010

Not surprisingly, some of our most-read blogs of the year related to card skimming, ATM hacks, EMV, authentication, ACH fraud and mobile banking. All of those topics have been widely covered and discussed throughout the industry over the last 12 months. And, as we embark upon 2011, I expect discussions around those topics to continue.

On the skimming front, while vulnerabilities at the ATM are widely known, 2010 saw a significant uptick in skimming at other unattended self-service terminals, namely, pay-at-the-pump. The problem got so bad over the summer that one Florida county police department went so far as to advise consumers to only use cash when paying for gas at self-service stations.

(Skimming) got so bad over the summer that one Florida county police department went so far as to advise consumers to only use cash when paying for gas at self-service stations. 

Phishing, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and the security risks they pose, also caught our readers' attention during the year. Even my personal story of a debit breach I suffered over the summer seemed to stir interest.

But some other topics that we don't blog about so often received a lot of views, too. Things like fraud schemes targeting would-be mystery shoppers and the often untold side of the individuals who are pulled into the money-mule circuit.

And how could we forget the WikiLeaks debacle and the subsequent distributed denial of service attacks launched after payments providers cut their support of the WikiLeaks team?

Those stories and perspectives will inevitably set the tone for 2011 and the topics we'll discuss.