The US must switch from insecure and antiquated magnetic stripes on credit/debit cards to very secure digital chip technology by 2015 to dramatically improve the safety and security of consumer's information during financial transactions. Recent massive data breaches (IE. Target) in late 2013 could have been prevented had the US made this move like many European and other countries have done. Australia recently implemented this and saw data theft concerns drop almost 30% the first year. Many banks and merchants fear the increased costs of updating equipment to accept digital chip cards, but the security of people's credit & debit card transaction information is of higher priority and value.



