I work for a large financial services company. I spent this past year designing software for them to enable chip and pin. I have also developed fraud detection software used by financial services companies. The basic problem is magnetic stripe cards can be copied and counterfeited. CHIP or EMV cards as we call them, add a new layer of security that prevents this. Bottom line -- all of this costs more money. You cannot add more security (which also increases complexity) without adding cost. We all pay for it in the end. Visa and MasterCard have shifted liability for fraudulent transactions that use EMV to the banks starting in 2015. The idea is to incent them to spend the additional money to issue EMV cards. Events like the recent breaches serve to bring more awareness to the problem and may expedite the rollout. For consumers like you and I, the regulations are such that once we report fraud we are no longer responsible for it. Bottom line -- keep a close eye on your bank statements regardless of the kind of card you have.
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