Lab Notes

Frank Herbert wants the death penalty for hackers, and Visa is giving what may be the death penalty to CardSystems Solutions [NY Times, free registration required]. CardSystems, if you will recall, is the credit card processing company that allowed the compromise of millions of credit card numbers and security codes.

Visa has determined that CardSystems violated Visa policy on data protection, and will no longer allow CardSystems to process Visa transactions. Without the ability to accept Visa, which accounts for over half of all CardSystem transactions, its hard to imagine that they will be able to remain in business. It's good to see Visa taking the matter so seriously.