NEW REPORT: Can Smarter Payments Kill Off Timesheets?

In the smarter payments ecosystem, payments are more than simply moving funds from sender to recipient. These transactions are also about the transfer of data that can inform and improve the payments process.

However, with so much sensitive information being transferred with each transaction, the need to keep the data secure has never been greater. In the new Smarter Payments Tracker, PYMNTS explores the latest efforts by banks and businesses to keep payments data secure from fraudsters, cybercriminals and other bad actors.

Around The Smarter Payments World

Dunkin’ Donuts (soon to be simply Dunkin’) recently learned of some holes in its cybersecurity operations.

The company notified its DD Perks rewards account holders that their information might have been compromised by a hacker. Dunkin’ said account holders’ first and last names — as well as email addresses, account numbers and QR codes — may have been affected by the incident, which it’s calling a “credential stuffing attack,” a form of automated attack that is different from a data breach.

Companies like Dunkin’ are not the only victims of a data breach, of course. Several government agencies and municipalities have been affected in recent weeks as well.

The city of Bakersfield, Illinois, for example, recently disclosed that cybercriminals had compromised the third-party website Click2Gov, used to process residents’ utility and municipal payments. Officials from Bakersfield said the city discovered malicious code on the Click2Gov site that enabled cybercriminals to capture card information, expiration dates, security codes, home addresses and other information, which has since been removed from the site.

Even the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been hit by data problems.

One recent report found that a flaw in the USPS website may have exposed more than 60 million users’ data, including account numbers, street addresses and more. The report also noted that cybercriminals could alter information — in some cases, to redirect mail. Most damaging, however, the agency was apparently alerted to the problem more than a year ago, but did not respond.

Deep Dive: Smarter, Safer Payments

As fraudsters become more brazen and aggressive with how they access data, companies that handle such information — including banks and businesses — face mounting pressure to keep consumer data safe and secure. At the same time, however, companies must also focus on ways to improve consumer experiences to keep them engaged, or risk losing them to rival platforms.

This month’s Tracker includes a Deep Dive that outlines the regulations aimed at keeping data safe, while also promoting new innovations in the financial services sector.

Giving Gig Workers Faster, Safer Payments

New financial service innovations could boost participation in the gig economy as well, by making it easier and safer for freelancers to submit hours. The rise of faster payment systems — and, in turn, smarter payments — can allow gig workers to securely submit digital timesheets and get paid just a few minutes or hours later. What’s more, these new solutions can keep freelancers’ personally identifiable information (PII) from being revealed.

In December’s Smarter Payments feature story, Dave O’Flynn, chief product officer of Engage Technology Partners, discusses how smarter payment solutions can enable faster payments to gig workers, while also transitioning the workforce away from risky practices like sharing personal information on timesheets via email.

Download the Tracker to read the feature story, Deep Dive and headlines.

About The Tracker

The Smarter Payments Tracker, powered by FIS, is a bimonthly report that looks at how payment systems are evolving to become faster, transmit data, offer interoperability between systems and more to improve the payer and payee experience.