Cash security online and in a new age should be a problem we can solve. Strong encryption is readily available, and our banks are online. We can have our banks communicate with each other over strongly-encrypted channels, passing one-time tokens to each other to represent transaction authorisations. At no point do we have to exchange any information that can be used again or that will enable any other party to access our funds. That basic idea has to be more secure than handing out reusable numbers (credit cards) and trusting everyone, everywhere, all at once not only to use that number responsibly but to keep it safe from everyone else. That's absurd, and it's been going wrong for a long time.
But how wrong, exactly, has it been going? How much is credit card fraud costing the banks and us as their consumers? I suspect it is still cheaper to chase down fraud after the fact. That is, it's more worthwhile for the banks to fight the fires as they come up rather than working to fix the whole system.
Mokalus of Borg
PS - And systems like Visa Paywave (with no authorisation) confirm that suspicion.
PPS - The banks don't try to stop your credit card being stolen, but they'll fix it if necessary.
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