Short takes on payments

Fiserv Inc., CheckFree Corp., CashEdge Inc., Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Metavante Corp and Internet Identity are among the companies that caught our eye today.

Fiserv files payment patent suit

Fiserv subsidiaries CheckFree and CashEdge filed a patent infringement lawsuit against FIS and Metavante, a subsidiary of FIS, Fiserv reported Jan. 5, 2012.

The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges FIS' Payment Manager products infringe on Fiserve patents. Payment Manager products process inter-bank account-to-account fund transfers, process payment instructions, and provide electronic biller notifications as part of the Payment Manager electronic bill payment technology.

In its statement Fiserve said it "has devoted significant resources developing and maintaining an extensive intellectual property portfolio. ... We have a responsibility to protect our intellectual property from further infringement and exploitation."

IID names top Internet security threats

Internet security provider Internet Identity (IID) recently issued its predictions for the top areas of concern in 2012. They include:

• Cyber attacks on the 2012 London Summer Olympics by using fake Summer Olympic sites in phishing scams.

• Attacks on voting machines during the U.S. primary election season. IID said hackers may try to alter votes or impersonate voting websites and emails to launch phishing and malware attacks.

• Criminal scams using public fears connected to the end of the Mayan calendar. IID predicted criminals will attempt to use the doomsday scenario to target people for phishing and malware attacks.

• More credit card and personal information thefts using Domain Name System and Border Gateway Protocol attacks.

• Hackers attacking and damaging important infrastructure elements such as power plants and utilities.

"Expect the criminal world to take advantage of cyber security holes to create real-world damage too, as they have long used techniques like distributed denial-of-service attacks to extort money from victims," IID said.

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