More than 90 percent of data breaches worldwide involve small and medium-sized business organizations. Data breaches result in increased global economic debt — and the reality is, hackers attack anyone, with few to no exceptions.
The governing body of the payment card industry (PCI) is the Standards Security Council that includes the major card brands, who addressed card data security by creating PCI SSC in 2006. These standards, known as PCI Compliance, are now required every year by all organizations involved in the handling, processing, management or storage of cardholder data, and have assisted merchants globally with best business practices to better secure customer cardholder data.
Says Cleveland Brown, CEO of global payment processing provider Payscout, “PCI Compliance is important to everyone in the payment processing industry. With data breaches increasing each year, it’s imperative that both merchant and customer, alike, perform due diligence to ensure they are not enabling cybercriminal activity.” Payscout recently partnered with data security company Protocol to establish safety for their clients via the requirements for PCI compliance needs.
The PCI SSC offers these steps to assist any size company in keeping its cyber defenses primed against attacks aimed at stealing its cardholder data:
- Be aware of data breaches and how they happen.
- Perform an internal risk assessment.
- Create and follow a data breach prevention security policy.
- Get assistance from a professional with proper credentials.
