Mission Critical: Awareness Of Payment Security Standards Has Never Been More Important
As India heads into another year of innovation and automation we must ensure our payments ecosystem can support our evolving payments landscape. We have already been seeing the amount of information that organisations can process and store continue to rise as new technologies are developed. With these developments there comes an increased need for robust privacy and security procedures to ensure cardholder payment data remains secure, and businesses best protect their bottom line while utilising the latest advancements in payments technology.
A growing payment industry means more opportunities for cybercrime
As data processing becomes increasingly sophisticated and more payment channels evolve, so too do the number of opportunities cybercriminals can look to attack. Software like the cloud, corporate data centres, IoT sensors and third-party servers are simultaneously making data transfer and storage more seamless, while making organisations more vulnerable to complex and novel attacks that they are often not familiar with or prepared for. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report (DBIR), there were 23,896 reportable data breach cases worldwide in 2022 alone, resulting in losses of up to USD 4.2 billion. As was the case last year, financially motivated attacks were the most common, and organised crime remains the most prevalent. The complex nature of this ever-changing threat has created the need for evolving payments security standards that create a safe environment for these varied technologies to operate within.
The role of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
To help tackle this challenge, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) develops security standards for organisations to follow to best protect their card payment data across a variety of technologies and channels. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard v4.0 (PCI DSS) is a global standard that was established to create a foundation of technical and operational insights for the protection of data, and make sure that enterprises that handle, store, or transfer credit card information maintain a secure ecosystem.
Among other educational and training programmes, PCI SSC also runs a 4-hour Awareness Training course to help promote employee awareness of security within organisations and improve their understanding of the most effective security standards to protect sensitive payment data.
Raising awareness will be fundamental to securing the payment ecosystem
Payment security is one of the most important considerations for any business that processes cardholder data. With India's payment ecosystem booming it is critical for businesses in the sector to follow best practices to mitigate the risk of cybercrime, such as using the latest and most appropriate security standards.
Organisations can strengthen their security and reduce any risks to cardholder data by increasing their employee’s knowledge of payment data security. However, employees are not alone in combating cyberattacks. To better protect payment data many businesses have now established new payment system infrastructures, revised their policies and procedures, and adopted new information security solutions. However, as security systems evolve so do the sophistication of cyberattacks. The key for businesses to defend against internal and external cybersecurity threats is to implement regular awareness training programmes that educate employees on the types of data their organisation processes, the importance of this data, and the threats that it faces. Employees who are well informed are better prepared to detect external threats and are less likely to victim to cybercrime.
Additionally, by employing the latest and most appropriate security standards companies can better safeguard themselves and their clients against data breaches and theft. By following industry-wide compliance standards and educating employees on best practices, we can foster a robust and resilient payment ecosystem that better combats the ever-evolving risk of cybercrime.
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