Mastercard's Push to Eliminate Card Numbers and Passwords for Online Shopping Mastercard is stepping up efforts to combat the rising threat of online payment fraud by replacing traditional card numbers and passwords with advanced technologies like biometrics. The payments giant, which processes over 1 billion tokenized transactions per week, is aiming to make online shopping safer and more secure by eliminating the vulnerabilities associated with card numbers and passwords. A Decade of Progress in Tokenization Mastercard introduced tokenization—a technology that replaces sensitive card numbers with encrypted tokens—over a decade ago. Initially, this innovation was a response to high-profile breaches, including those at Target and Best Buy, where millions of customers’ credit card data was compromised. The tokenization process ensures that even if a hacker gains access to payment details, the token is worthless unless it is decoded by the payment network. Since its intro
