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New data from CardFlight points to the fact that more merchants are embracing EMV technology and accepting chip cards on a regular basis.

When the EMV migration occurred last October, just 2% of transactions were processed as chip-on-chip, while 44% were EMV cards processed as magnetic stripe transactions and 54% were non-chip cards.

Chip-on-chip skyrocketed through June. Just under half of CardFlight transactions were chip-on-chip, while 24% were chip cards processed via mag stripe and 30% were non-EMV. That points to an increase in not just EMV terminal upgrades, but EMV activations, which could decrease fraud across the industry.

CardFlight’s data indicates that friction in the US EMV migration is beginning to taper. In the past, merchants, especially small- and medium-sized businesses like those targeted by CardFlight, were hesitant to upgrade to chip-enabled terminals because they believed the costs outweighed the benefits. Ultimately, decreased fraud and increased customer awareness of EMV pushed more merchants to upgrade.

But upgrading proved challenging for merchants, because a time-consuming terminal certification and activation process created a significant lag between when merchants upgraded to an EMV terminal and when they could begin accepting chip-on-chip transactions. That prompted card networks to introduce solutions that simplified the process and reduced the associated time frame.

CardFlight's rising chip-on-chip data reflects that merchants are beginning to catch up to consumers in adopting and enabling EMV. As that occurs, this should further accelerate chip-on-chip transactions, because a huge share of consumers already have chip cards. For context, Visa disclosed that it expects 75% of its US credit cards representing 96% of credit volume to be chip-enabled by the end of the year.

Fraud cost U.S. retailers approximately $32 billion in 2014, up from $23 billion just one year earlier. To solve the card fraud problem across in-store, online, and mobile payments, payment companies and merchants are implementing new payment protocols that could finally help mitigate fraud.

John Heggestuen, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on payment security that looks at how the dynamics of fraud are shifting across in-store and online channels and explains the top new types of security that are gaining traction across each of these channels, including on Apple Pay.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

EMV cards are being rolled out with an embedded microchip for added security. The microchip carries out real-time risk assessments on a person's card purchase activity based on the card user's profile. The chip also generates dynamic cryptograms when the card is inserted into a payment terminal. Because these cryptograms change with every purchase, it makes it difficult for fraudsters to make counterfeit cards that can be used for in-store transactions.

To bolster security throughout the payments chain encryption of payments data is being widely implemented. Encryption degrades valuable data by using an algorithm to translate card numbers into new values. This makes it difficult for fraudsters to harvest the payments data for use in future transactions.

Point-to-point encryption is the most tightly defined form of payments encryption. In this scheme, sensitive payment data is encrypted from the point of capture at the payments terminal all the way through to the gateway or acquirer. This makes it much more difficult for fraudsters to harvest usable data from transactions in stores and online.

Tokenization increases the security of transactions made online and in stores. Tokenization schemes assign a random value to payment data, making it effectively impossible for hackers to access the sensitive data from the token itself. Tokens are often "multiuse," meaning merchants don't have to force consumers to re-enter their payment details. Apple Pay uses an emerging form of tokenization.

3D Secure is an imperfect answer to user authentication online. One difficulty in fighting online fraud is that it is hard to tell whether the person using card data is actually the cardholder. 3D Secure adds a level of user authentication by requiring the customer to enter a passcode or biometric data in addition to payment data to complete a transaction online. Merchants who implement 3D Secure risk higher shopping-cart abandonment.

In full, the report:

Assesses the fraud cost to US retailers and how that fraud is expected to shift in coming years

Provides 5 high-level explanations of the top payment security protocols

Includes 7 infographics illustrating what the transaction flow looks like when each type of security is implemented.

Analyzes the strengths and weakness of each payment security protocol and the reasons why particular protocols are being put in place at different types of merchants.

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of payments security.