As you may know, last Thursday, October 1st, was the deadline for merchants to be able to accept so-called “chip and PIN” or “chip and signature” smartcard credit cards and debit cards, with the EMV chip. Of course, while the burden is on the merchants to accept them, lots of consumers don’t actually have them, as their banks have not yet issued them a new chipped debit or credit card. Whether you already have your shiny, new chip and PIN or chip and signature card or not, here’s everything that you need to know about them.

In what is being called the “largest hacking and identity theft case” ever, eleven men have been indicted for allegedly stealing the numbers of more than 40 million U.S. credit cards and debit cards. Let me repeat that: 40 million. The entire population of the United States is only 301 million! That means that for every seven or eight people you see, the odds are good that one of them had their credit card number stolen, and their account drained.