PANews reported on August 30 that according to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao, MasterCard is planning to cancel traditional credit card numbers and adopt "authentication technology" (Tokenization) to combat online fraud. This technology replaces sensitive data such as credit card numbers with randomly generated digital sequences (tokens) to reduce the risk of data leakage. MasterCard CEO Miebach said the company will expand the use of this technology and replace traditional passwords with biometric identification (such as fingerprints or facial scans). This measure is in response to the growing problem of online payment fraud, which is expected to exceed US$91 billion by 2028.
Miebach pointed out that the conventional thinking in the past was to protect data and transactions with passwords to ensure security, but this practice has gradually become a security loophole. However, "authentication technology" replaces sensitive information with "tokens", so that even if the data is illegally accessed by hackers, the real information cannot be parsed. In addition, "authentication technology" also helps companies comply with data protection regulations, such as the EU General Data Protection Law (GDPR) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). MasterCard said that it is expected that all e-commerce transactions in Europe will be replaced by "tokens" by the end of this century.
