Information from more than 60 million credit cards was stolen in the recent Home Depot data breach.

That theft could result in over $3 billion in fraudulent credit card purchases. Home Depot has stated that it was in the process of activating EMV technology in its U.S. stores to prevent future breaches. But the technology is the same that is already in use in Canada. Since the breach took place in both countries, it seems that credit card data will remain vulnerable to theft regardless of the new chip cards.

While the risk of credit card theft is well known in the U.S., Canada was thought to have been more secure. Unlike the U.S., most Canadian credit cards have been updated to the new EMV chip card standard that is designed to deter theft. The U.S. still relies predominantly on mag-strip cards, a 40 year old tech that is highly vulnerable to cloning.

SmartMetric, Inc. suggests that its new EMV chip with an inbuilt fingerprint reader could be the solution needed.

In these cards, the EMV chip remains unactivated until the fingerprint reader is used to turn it on.

The fingerprint reader is self powered and fits inside credit or identity cards. SmartMetric CEO Chaya Hendrick commented that “SmartMetric just finished a presentation of its technology to the National Investment Bankers Association in New York and is extremely pleased with the reception the company and its advanced card security solution has received by the New York investment banking community in attendance.

SmartMetric is a tech company based in the Howard Hughes Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their technology and components allow for instant fingerprint recognition on a credit card embedded with a sub micro computer.