AKIBIA'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Recent Breaches Remind us to Focus on Security
As Wired notes, two major security breaches have been reported in the past month alone at large credit card processors putting millions of MasterCard and Visa cardholders at risk of having their information stolen. Today there is an increased level of criminal activity that takes place in the Cyber world. Identity theft and credit card theft are two of the most prevalent in addition to the phishing that occurs as criminals attempt to redirect consumers to non-legitimate sites posing as their bank or retailer.
As a PCI auditing firm authorized to perform Level 1 audits, some of our recent customer engagements have been very encouraging. These engagements were with companies that did not require a Level 1 audit; however they asked us to perform a gap analysis for them, showing how their security measures up against the strict Level 1 requirements. The results ensure the customer and their consumers that they indeed were doing their utmost to protect sensitive information.
Using the PCI standards as a benchmark for an overall security strategy is a wise step for any organization, whether the company is required to meet the standards or not.
-- Bill Malone, director, Global Professional Services, Akibia
