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Article Excerpt
It seems that every day brings a new story of the theft of cardholder data, or the news that previously reported break-ins were worse than initially imagined.
This publicity has brought to sharp focus the reality and implications of identity theft. More disturbingly, it has also emphasized the financial burdens that such a breach can have on the retailer found to have been the source of the problem. As a result, there is increased focus on reducing the possibility of future breaches.
For example, major players in the credit card industry are now placing emphasis on merchants achieving Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance, the standard by which retailers are held responsible for the handling of cardholder data. Visa, leading the charge in the payment card industry worldwide, is both offering incentives, and assessing penalties, underscoring the importance of heightened data security.
There is a potential bright spot in all of this for merchants that maintain PCI-DSS compliance, in advance of a data compromise. For those proactive merchants, there may be protection in a "safe harbor" provision which will reduce their exposure to potential penalties.
It seems that centralized storage of cardholder data was the primary cause of intrusion in the past. Equally dangerous now is the possibility of real-time data theft. In a recent, well-publicized breach hackers gained access to the records of 45 million-plus cardholders,...
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