PCI Pal today encourages organisations to implement a culture of security to make year-round compliance a priority, to safeguard customers’ payment card data amid rising cyber-fraud risks.
With reports from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) stating that credit card, identity and cyber-fraud has reached ‘epidemic levels’ and become a ‘national security threat’, the global provider of cloud-based secure payment solutions Chief Information Security Officer, Geoff Forsyth, is urging organisations to adopt a data and payments security compliance plan for 2021.
He said: “Verizon’s 2020 Payment Security report found – for the third year running – that just over a quarter (27.9%) of organisations assessed had maintained full Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance during their interim compliance validation, meaning a majority who were previously assessed as fully compliant, were not compliant at their interim validation.
“With the RUSI highlighting the increasing security risks facing the UK, in addition to the Crime Survey for England and Wales confirming that 3.7 million credit card, identity and cyber-fraud incidents were reported in 2019-20, 2021 is not the year to be complacent about security and compliance.
“Organisations should be sufficiently prepared with the ongoing resources that are required to maintain year-round measures. A whole-company approach is needed so everyone within the organisation is aware of the important obligations and penalties for non-compliance; regular assessments should be in place with all staff so they are kept updated on the risks and understand the importance of security best practice.”
Data Protection Day – which is also known internationally as Data Privacy Day – takes place today on Thursday 28th January 2021.
