Federal Government to Use Pin and Chip Technology

I was in South Africa earlier this year for business. The first night out at dinner our group split the check evenly, two of us being from the US found it very strange when the waitress approached the table with a portable credit card terminal. It turned out that most countries in Africa use advanced chip and pin technology in order to prevent credit card fraud. Our dinner mates found it very strange that we would just hand our cards off to a complete stranger to take across the restaurant to pay the bill...I had to agree this was not the best method. Last week I ordered my first chip and pin card from my credit card company, which happened to arrive on the same day that President Obama ordered all federal agencies to begin using chip and pin terminals for transactions. Seems a bit late, but at least we are taking steps to securing ourselves against fraud.