Have you met the Payment Card Industry (PCI DSS) Standards yet?

Overview

Credit cards are widespread and their use for online payments is increasing dramatically. There were 1.3 billion credit cards in circulation in the U.S. in 2004, with 76% of Americans having at least one credit card. Retail U.S. e-commerce sales in the 4th quarter of 2006 were $33.9billion, a 25% increase over the same quarter in 2005.
There is bad news however. Credit card fraud (26%) was the most common form of reported identity theft in 2005. Considering that more than $48 billion was lost by financial institutions and businesses in that year due to identity theft, and $5 billion lost by individuals, it can be said that credit card fraud is digging deep into everyone’s pockets! E-commerce fraud is also on the rise, reaching $3 billion in 2006 with an increment of 7% over 2005.

This white paper examines the consequences of cardholder data theft and addresses the following key questions:
• What is the PCI directive?
• Why is it important for your business to comply?
• What are the consequences of not complying?
• What solutions are available to address the PCI directive?