PCI Standards

Since 2005, millions of citizens have been affected by reported and unreported data breaches at payment processors, banks and retailers -- but the nation was still stunned when news broke out about the TJX data breach.This has indeed been a larger problem than most recognize, with some 88 million consumers affected by data breaches in the past two years alone, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The only positive outcome of these unforgivable security lapses has been that enterprises large and small are beginning to re-evaluate their security posture.During the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of Internet-based commerce and a drastic increase in credit and debit card usage in the physical storefront. Despite warnings from security watchdogs and the best efforts of organizations to protect customer data, consumer fraud and identity theft have hit new highs, with attacks becoming more sophisticated and damaging. The number of identity thefts and fraudulent credit card charges reached more than 4 million in the United States alone in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.In response to the increased threat, governments around the world have been considering an array of new laws and regulations to systematically combat the problem. In addition, the banking and credit card industries have spearheaded their own initiatives, including the newly revised Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Since 2005, millions of citizens have been affected by reported and unreported data breaches at payment processors, banks and retailers -- but the nation was still stunned when news broke out about the TJX data breach.This has indeed been a larger problem than most recognize, with some 88 million consumers affected by data breaches in the past two years alone, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The only positive outcome of these unforgivable security lapses has been that enterprises large and small are beginning to re-evaluate their security posture.During the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of Internet-based commerce and a drastic increase in credit and debit card usage in the physical storefront. Despite warnings from security watchdogs and the best efforts of organizations to protect customer data, consumer fraud and identity theft have hit new highs, with attacks becoming more sophisticated and damaging. The number of identity thefts and fraudulent credit card charges reached more than 4 million in the United States alone in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.In response to the increased threat, governments around the world have been considering an array of new laws and regulations to systematically combat the problem. In addition, the banking and credit card industries have spearheaded their own initiatives, including the newly revised Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

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