Breaches Pushing Retailers to Adopt PCI

By Jaikumar Vijayan

August 6, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments

(0)

Computerworld - The massive data breach at The TJX Companies Inc. disclosed earlier this year and a string of smaller breaches at other companies appears to be goading merchants to accelerate adoption of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

Visa U.S.A. Inc. last week reported that about 96% of the worlds largest businesses that accept credit and debit cards have stopped storing magnetic stripe information in their systems, meeting a key PCI requirement.

Purging magnetic stripe information, which includes cardholders personal data, marks an important step toward full compliance with PCI, said Michael Smith, senior vice president of enterprise risk and compliance at San Francisco-based Visa.

Retailers have been directed to meet the PCI standard by credit card suppliers Visa, MasterCard Worldwide, American Express Co., Discover Financial Services LLC and JCB International Credit Card Co.

The progress comes amid an overall uptick in the adoption of all the controls mandated by PCI, Smith noted.

According to Visa, about 40% of 327 Level 1 merchants those processing more than 6 million transactions annually have demonstrated their compliance with the standard, up from 36% of the 230 Level 1 retailers counted at the end of 2006.

Visa noted that 97 Level 1 merchants have proved that they are in compliance since last December.

Much of the adoption has been driven by a fear that merchants could become victims of a major breach, said Eduardo Perez, vice president of payment system risk at Visa U.S.A.

Recent events, he said, have caused other players and merchants in the system to secure their systems.

I think the progress is mainly due to the fear factor that a merchant wont end up as the next TJX, said Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner Inc.

Litan also noted that there is much frustration among retailers about what they perceive as changing interpretations of PCI rules by various card suppliers, and about the heavy costs involved in upgrading their point-of-sale systems to ensure that they dont store magnetic stripe data.

Read more about security in Computerworld's Security Knowledge Center.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

retail

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

EFD vs. HDD - What You Need to Know

Enterprise flash drives provide a new Tier 0 storage layer capable of delivering high I/O performance at a very low latency. Proper use of EFDs in an Oracle environment can deliver increased performance compared to fibre channel drives. Read the recommendations for identification of the best DB components for EFDs.

WHITE PAPER

Gartner Research Report: Magic Quadrant for Application Delivery Controllers, 2009

The market for products to improve the delivery of application software over networks remains dynamic and innovative. Vendors focused on solving enterprises' most-pressing application problems have become the top players.

WHITE PAPER

Eight Criteria for Server Load Balancing

Server load balancers are a simple yet highly effective means to scale an application environment while ensuring its availability. Today's solutions should also address application performance and security. Read about the top eight criteria you should consider when choosing a server load balancer and how Citrix NetScaler meets those requirements.

What People Are Saying

0 comments | Add new

See all comments (0) | Add new

White Papers & Webcasts

Death to PST Files
Download Now

Four Ways to Improve Your TSM Environment with a SEPATON VTL
Watch Now

The Tangled Web: Silent Threats & Invisible Enemies
Download Now

Tape Killed the IT Guy
Watch Now

Forrester Consulting Mobility Study: Taking Control of Enterprise Mobile Device Diversity
Download Now

BRM: What You Can Do To Reduce Risk In Challenging Times
Watch this webcast now!

What IT Must Do to Support Employee-Owned BlackBerry, iPhone and Android Mobile Devices
Download Now

Web 2.0, Social Media and the Dark Web - A Web Criminals Paradise?
In this discussion, learn about the challenges of protecting your users from the potentially unsafe content hidden in the "Dark Web".

eGuide: Enterprise Security
Smart Security Strategies for 2010. Read now!

Disaster Recovery 2008: Reduced Costs and Improved Performance
How long can your Enterprise afford to be without your data? With an accelerated disaster recovery program, you never have to answer this...

All White Papers | All Webcasts