After falling to its lowest measurement ever in November, economic confidence among small business owners rose slightly in December. The Discover Small Business Watch rose to 72.8 in December, up 5.3 points from November.

New Jersey authorities have launched a probe into a Seattle area online credit card processing company accused of absconding with more than $1 million paid to register children for sports leagues and after-school programs across the nation.

In another sign of sweeping changes in the Canadian payment card market, Visa Inc.'s Visa Canada unit last week published interchange rates on its web site for the first time. The posting comes at a time when merchants are complaining about higher rewards-card acceptance costs and expressing fears that possible Visa- and MasterCard-branded debit cards could undermine Canada?s low-cost Interac PIN-based debit card network.

Too many small-business owners aren't aware of their credit card processing fees, and they're paying too much because rate increases are opaque and confusing. (Please refer to the second section of this article titled "How To Subdue Credit Card Fees").

To assist in the fight against fraud, MasterCard is offering a free, online credit card fraud prevention training you can take at your own pace. The program will familiarize you with the security features of MasterCard and help you identify fraudulent cards and what actions to take if you suspect fraud.

The PCI Security Standards Council, the standards body providing management of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard has announced it will be offering a complimentary webinar, "Understanding PCI DSS Version 1.2,? to be held on Tuesday Nov. 25, 2008 at 11:30 a.m. EST and at 7:30 p.m. EST. The session will be repeated on Wednesday Dec. 17, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. EST and 8:30 p.m. EST.

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the availability of two new seminars designed to help merchants protect payment card data and reduce the likelihood of reputational risk and fraud.

Consumers pay fees and higher prices to cover losses. But some fees punish the wrong people unnecessarily, and a San Antonio area antiques store provides an example. The store owner is like many others who accept MasterCard and Visa credit cards as payment for store sales. Here is her situation when faced with a new fee from her processor.

The credit card underdog is taking on rival Visa with smart technology, memorable marketing, and global ambition. But what happens when consumers put their cards away?

Discover Financial Services, the fourth-biggest U.S. credit-card company, settled an antitrust suit in which it sought $18 billion from larger rivals Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for blocking banks from issuing its cards.

New data from Visa Inc. show more of the largest merchants now meet the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI. But the level of validated PCI compliance among small merchants?the overwhelming majority of businesses that accept credit and debit cards?likely remains much lower.

The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has announced the general availability of version 1.2 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). According to the Council, "this latest version is the culmination of two years of feedback and suggestions from its industry stakeholders and is designed to clarify and ease implementation of the foremost standard for cardholder account security.

Finding out who's responsible for the costs of a data breach can be a very complicated and legally challenging project.

Visa has announced that it will begin supporting the issuance of "unembossed" cards in the U.S. for Visa consumer debit, business debit and consumer credit cards. Unembossed payment cards feature printed personalized information, such as the account number and cardholder name, rather than embossed with raised lettering.

That's what a lot of diners ask when they find out restaurant owners deduct credit-card processing fees from charged tips. Some restaurant owners say it's only fair that they deduct credit-card fees.

If passed, the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 (HR.5546), introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), could affect both online and bricks-and-mortar retailers that accept credit or debit card payments.

If signed into law, the new bill prohibits retailers from storing "sensitive authentication data subsequent to authorization, even if that data is encrypted and any payment-related data that is not needed for business, legal, or regulatory purposes."

Evidence is mounting that criminal attacks on e-commerce via keyloggers and other code that detects user credentials are growing rapidly. The number of URLs used to disseminate such malware soared to a record 6,500 in March.

More data breaches have been reported so far this year than in all of 2007, according to a report released recently by a nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud.

Small business owners' economic confidence rose for the second straight month in August, climbing away from a 22-month low in June as their concerns about the state of the overall economy improved. The Discover(R) Small Business Watch (SM) reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and more than 15 points higher than June.

The PCI Security Standards Council announces it is offering a complimentary and educational webinar, "A Perfect Fit - Understanding the Interrelationship of the PCI Standards," to be held on Thursday September 4, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. EDT and a second session the same day at 7:30 p.m. EDT.

When federal prosecutors recently disclosed that computer hackers swiped more than 40 million credit card numbers from nine retailers in the biggest such heist ever, it was the first time that many shoppers had heard about it.

The US Department of Justice has announced that "eleven perpetrators allegedly involved in the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers have been charged with numerous crimes.

Banks and the payment card networks, which oppose the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008 in the House of Representatives and its Senate companion, recently got some ammunition for their cause when both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission came out against the interchange proposal.

The Discover(R) Small Business Watch(SM) jumped in July to 84.6, up 12.8 points from 71.8 in June. After sinking to its lowest level in June, economic confidence among small business owners rebounded in July, as the number of those who said they are experiencing cash flow issues decreased significantly and general economic confidence began trending upward.

QUESTION: When I use my debit card to buy gas at the pump, I've noticed that a hold gets put on funds in my account for a few days -- sometimes for more than what I purchased. What gives? Is there any way to avoid this?

MasterCard Worldwide has announced the availability of three new seminars designed to help merchants protect payment card data and reduce the likelihood of reputational risk and the incidence of fraud.

Owning a small business often means having to wear many different hats - marketer, accountant, building manager, and Web tech whiz, to name a few. But when it comes to figuring out what's behind credit card companies' charges for handling your customers' transactions - known as interchange fees - that can be one hat too many.

Pressed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Visa Inc. has changed its operating rules to allow PINless debit card transactions for small-ticket purchases, just as it waives the signature requirement for low-value purchases on its signature-based Visa check card.

On June 30, the PCI Security Standards Council, the independent body that administers the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, will make mandatory protection measures in its rules about Internet-facing software applications that the Council currently classifies as best practices.

Visa has announced that it is implementing processing and rate changes that will result in benefits for American consumers and fuel merchants frustrated by rising prices at the pump.

American Express announced today that it has reached an agreement with MasterCard Inc. to drop a lawsuit alleging that MasterCard had illegally blocked American Express from the bank-issued card business. Under the terms of the agreement, MasterCard will pay American Express up to $1.8 billion.

Here are five useful steps Web merchants can take to better secure their web sites.

Verizon Business has announced a comprehensive report on data breaches concluding that "nearly nine in 10 corporate data breaches could have been prevented had reasonable security measures been in place." The study also provides key recommendations to help businesses protect themselves and urges them to be proactive.

Discover Financial Services is seeking more than $6 billion in damages in its 4-year-old case against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., according to documents unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Indiana-based 1st Source Bank is reissuing its entire portfolio of debit cards after a hacker or hackers broke into a bank server containing debit card data.

About 80 people who bought gas with their debit cards at an Arco station in San Jose had a total of $45,000 drained from their bank accounts by thieves suspected of pulling the same scam at the company's stations elsewhere in California.

Major credit card companies had a good idea when they decided to pursue a standard for cardholder data protection. Data breaches were on the rise and credit card information was being targeted. So why were so many merchants standing on the dock after the PCI boat has sailed?

Retailers accused Visa and MasterCard during a recent congressional hearing of levying excessive fees, while the card company executives countered that retailer-supported legislation would simply push more of the cost onto consumers.

The marketers of a debit and credit card processing services operation have agreed to judgments of more than $26 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they deceived small businesses throughout the country.

When can a merchant ask for additional information on credit card transactions? When can a business ask for your Social Security number?

Payment card interchange will be in Congress' spotlight again when the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing about the controversial Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008, a bill that would put price controls on card-acceptance costs.

Dave & Buster's, a popular eatery and arcade, is the latest U.S. firm to be hit by hackers bent on stealing credit card data. This breach, much like one a few months ago at the East Coast grocery chain Hannaford, was the result of strategically placed malware that recorded credit card data in transit. These breaches illustrate the need for more stringent payment card security standards.

Thieves are copying the information stored on magnetic strips onto counterfeit cards. This ABC News segment shows how it's done and what you need to do to avoid becoming a victim.

Paying breach bill may not buy Hannaford full data protection. The grocer is spending millions of dollars on new IT security tools. But they might not have prevented the theft of payment data from its systems.

Discover Financial Services LLC becomes a global payments player with its pending deal to buy Diners Club International from Citigroup Inc.'s Citibank N.A. for $165 million in cash.

Data breaches disclosed by Hannaford Bros Supermarket Chain, GE Money, and Georgetown University are just some of the 167 breaches reported during the first quarter of 2008, according to the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). This is more than double the first quarter in 2007 (76 breaches).

Fraudsters planted so-called malware, or malicious software, on servers at about 300 supermarkets in or affiliated with the Hannaford Bros. Inc. supermarket chain and with it were able to steal credit and debit card data. The thefts happened even though Hannaford at the time was compliant with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that TJX has agreed to settle charges that it engaged in practices that, taken together, failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for sensitive consumer information.

News of the first big data breach of 2008 broke recently when grocery chain Hannaford Bros. Co. acknowledged a data intrusion into its computer network that resulted in the theft of a reported 4.2 million customer credit and debit card numbers.

MasterCard International said it welcomed a U.S. appeals court's dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit by a group of merchants claiming that the company, Visa USA and three banks had conspired to set fees charged to businesses for credit card sales.

Risk-scoring models, or fraud screens, designed to block specific types of fraud experienced by individual retailers were cited most often as the most effective risk management tools in a study by CyberSource Corp.

Facing financial markets that have been roiled by troubled subprime mortgages and a weakening economy, Visa Inc. on Monday said it is seeking to raise $15 billion to $17 billion in its upcoming initial public offering of common stock - an amount that even on the low end would be a record IPO.

A bill introduced into the Vermont House of Representatives in January 2008, H.600, would force hard copy disclosure to Vermont merchants of the interchange fees set by Visa Inc., MasterCard Worldwide and other credit card companies.

Consumers trained for years by self-payment systems at grocery stores and gas stations soon will get a chance to use these skills at more restaurants.

Should the restaurant wait staff have to pay its share of the processing fee when the tip is put on a credit card bill? Some restaurants have been reducing tips by assessing the fee for years, but the practice is attracting new interest as processing fees rise and profit margins tighten.

The PCI Security Standards Council has announced that its updated Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for merchants and service providers is now available.

The parent company of Outback Steakhouse and its sibling restaurants has rescinded a policy of requiring its wait staff to cover credit-card processing fees for tips included on their customers' bills.

A father and son were sentenced earlier this week for defrauding about 1,200 customers out of roughly $125,000. The two operated NorCal CSI, a Sacramento-area company that acted as an independent sales agent for a credit card processing company.

When credit gets tight, the vampires come out. Now feasting on small businesses is a cadre of "merchant cash advance" (MCA) shops. These lenders of last resort give small businesses cash today in return for a percentage of their future credit card sales.

Miami is now viewed as the riskiest city for e-commerce in the U.S., according to a new survey by online payment security services vendor CyberSource Corp. Miami bumped New York from the top spot this year in the annual survey.

Merchants accounting for two-thirds of Visa Inc.'s U.S. transaction volume have validated compliance with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, or PCI, Visa reported. PCI is the card networks' controversial joint set of rules for protecting cardholder and transaction data.

Personal information on about 650,000 customers of J.C. Penney and up to 100 other retailers could be compromised after a computer tape went missing. GE Money, which handles credit card operations for Penney and many other retailers, said Thursday night that the missing information includes Social Security numbers for about 150,000 people.

Two online policies have landed U.S. retailer Sears in hot water with privacy advocates.

The retailer TJX is close to reaching agreement with U.S card issuers which suffered financial losses as a result of the security breach in its computer systems.