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EMV

Short for Europay MasterCard and Visa, EMV chips have helped resolve security issues through computer chip technology, making it more difficult for credit terminals to be compromised. EMVs are embedded in all credit cards nowadays, though they’ve long been the norm in other countries, especially those located in Europe. Instead of swiping a credit card through, EMV-ready credits cards are used by inserting them into terminals. Because the authentication process is a bit more involved, transactions typically take slightly longer to complete when compared to the magnetic stripe method.

The purpose of EMV is to reduce on-site credit card fraud by confirming that the card is both valid and in the hands of the correct owner. EMV does not however, protect data after the transaction, so it does nothing to prevent site-wide data breaches. For this reason, merchants should utilize processors that support end-to-end encryption and tokenization to protect themselves from data breaches.

EMV chip cards are used in Europe, Latin America, Asia, Canada and now the United States.