mastercard

How MasterCard plans to transform mobile purchases

BARCELONA, Spain--The hype around mobile payments is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the coming transformation for how people purchase goods and services.

That's according to Ed McLaughlin, chief emerging payments officer for MasterCard, who spoke with CNET about his company's vision.

While at the Mobile World Congress conference, MasterCard unveiled its MasterPass system, which addresses not only mobile payments, but also all forms of digital transactions. MasterPass is designed for purchases made in stores, online, or on the phone.

"It's a foundation for moving to a world beyond plastic," McLaughlin … Read more

U.K. convicts Anonymous member 'Nerdo' for DDoS attack

In its ongoing pursuit to strike back at hackers, U.K. courts have convicted a member of Anonymous for conspiracy.

A London jury found Christopher Weatherhead, a 22-year-old self described "hacktivist," guilty of carrying out a campaign of Distributed Denial of Service attacks against major credit card companies that refused to process online donations to WikiLeaks, according to the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service. The conviction came after guilty pleas of three of Weatherhead's co-conspirators.

"Christopher Weatherhead is a cyber criminal who waged a sophisticated and orchestrated campaign of online attacks on the computer systems … Read more

The 404 1,162: Where we protect our necks (podcast)

Questions answered on today's episode of The 404 Show:

- What's the point of having an LCD screen and buttons on my credit card?

- What comes in the Nintendo Wii U box, why do people love unboxing videos so much, and why does my brain feel like it's being massaged? Side note: ASMR Subreddit

- What's the history of Goatse.cx and how can I use it to ruin everyone's day?

- How can I sucker someone into giving me free money for the holidays?… Read more

Amex didn't sign on to Google Wallet's major app upgrade

As Google announced its major upgrade for Google Wallet yesterday -- in which shoppers could use any type of major credit card to load up their smartphone -- American Express confirmed today that it didn't agree to such a deal.

"We want to make sure Google's mobile wallet product meets the standards we set for our card members in terms of the transparency and clarity about transaction detail," American Express' VP of social media communications Brad Minor told CNET in an e-mail. "And right now, American Express does not have an agreement with Google for … Read more

1.5 million card numbers stolen

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

1.5M card numbers compromised Comcast, Time Warner don't allow access to HBO Go on Xbox and Roku Free Photoshop CS6 preview Angry Birds cartoon series Developer defends Girls Around Me app Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (HD) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS HD

Nook Simple Touch e-reader drops to $79 if you use MasterCard

Barnes & Noble hasn't officially dropped the price of its $99 Nook Simple Touch e-reader, but you can save $20 until March 18 if you buy it with a MasterCard. The deal is available at all Barnes & Noble's stores nationwide and online at BN.com and also applies to the Nook Color, which can be had for $149.

The Nook Simple Touch is an e-ink e-reader that competes with Amazon's Kindle Touch, which starts at $99 for the ad-supported model. Both products have received Editors' Choice awards from CNET. Amazon sells the standard, non-touch-screen version of … Read more

Visa, MasterCard appear to have lifted WikiLeaks ban

Editor's note: Please see update note at the end of this post, which includes a statement from Visa saying it has not reinstated DataCell.

WikiLeaks' financial blockade appears to have been lifted, at least temporarily.

Visa and MasterCard, which cut off payments to the secret-sharing site in December after it published hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. government documents, may have reversed course. CNET was the first to report that MasterCard pulled the plug.

Iceland-based DataCell, which handles WikiLeaks payments, said today that it is now able to process Visa and MasterCard payments again. "Today we have … Read more

This Day in Tech: Interview with Mac pioneer and Google+ contributor; Twitter handles 200 million tweets daily

Too busy to keep up with today's tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Friday, July 1.

Google+ contributor and Mac pioneer talks with CNET (Q&A) A core feature of the new Google+ service is Circles, which makes it drag-and-drop easy to build "circles" of friends in the browser. Meet Andy Hertzfeld, the man behind Circles--and the original Mac. More

Living life without unlimited data CNET's Maggie Reardon helps current Verizon customers understand their data options, and also offers pointers on choosing among Apple, Google Android, and RIM … Read more

WikiLeaks makes a priceless MasterCard commercial

Just like any organization with charity at its core, WikiLeaks needs money to operate.

And, as exclusively revealed by CNET, MasterCard was at the forefront of making donations a little more cumbersome by withdrawing its own very useful service to that cause.

So what could WikiLeaks do but make an ad that encourages the charitable to find other ways to donate? Oh, and as a touching tweak to the nose of the official financial industry, WikiLeaks decided to use MasterCard's famous "Priceless" campaign as its inspiration.

What Does it Cost to Change the World? from WikiLeaks on … Read more