I have never used a card online. I just received an Eftpos debit card which can only be used at an Eftpos terminal, with a pin number, avoiding easy fraud. It can not be used on the internet at all. My Visa card has been sanded smooth & near printless, as the plastic is quite good for hot glue repairs to my remote control planes.

For net purchases I use PayPal, which has to date been faultless.

My lady has twice been caught with overseas transactions on her card. A few years back it was a couple of thousand, which took months to get back. This recent one is a few hundred, just a week ago. It will be interesting to see if this stops her using her card on line, & how long it will take to get her money back.

If you complain really loudly the bank will supply these Eftpos cards, but it has to be quite loud. I don't think the staff are allowed to admit they even have them, except to save loosing an account.

The Wall Street Journal article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-america-could-go-dark-1468423254

" How America Could Go Dark " ...from the above link, the same goes for us here in Oz, but with the renewables mess from SA put into the equation, it seems we are made more vulnerable to attacks.

When something as simple as an excavator accident [*2010 or 2011 I think it was] in Tennant Creek cutting the main ring of the communications for the Top End - which knocked out phone and internet services for 3 days. This included Broome in WA and went as far as Mt Isa. It is easy to sabotage the hardware/infrastucture assets in these grids, as many of the facilities are infrequently patrolled by mobile security guards. Once you know their routes and routines, all so easy to set up a diversion.

There are/were two fibre systems between Sydney and Queensland.
Catch is they both do/did cross the bridge at the river at Telegraph Point.
I put it that way because it might well have changed by now as it was some time ago.
Another incident Queensland was cut off by a farmer on the Central NSW coast.

How easy for a determined saboteur.