WASHINGTON – Following last month’s White House-hosted Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, Chain Store Age published a column describing several retailer-oriented takeaways. Among them were:

• Retailers recognize chip-and-PIN – Participants stressed that chip-and-PIN technology is the best means of securing personal customer details at the point of sale. “While U.S. financial institutions have been promoting chip and signature technology … it seems that retailers understand chip and PIN offers more security,” writes the publication.
• Mobile payment – Retail is just the beginning of the possibilities for mobile payment, not the end goal. For instance, Apple is working on making Apple Pay compatible with cards issued to government employees for their expenses, as well as compatible with Social Security and veterans pensions. “This represents a major expansion of the idea of a mobile wallet. And it helps retailers in two key ways. First, the more consumers use a technology in their everyday lives, the more they use it in a retail setting. … Second, easily accessible mobile personal identification, such as driver’s licenses, would make verifying pay-in-advance transactions much easier and faster,” writes CSA.
• We’re all in it together –  One thing made clear at the summit, from President Obama on down, is that safeguarding the security and privacy of consumer data is a shared responsibility of government and business. Retailers need to understand they have entered a new age of payment security where all the stakeholders must cooperate and align their efforts for everyone’s benefit, especially the consumer.