The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is always creating new and effective versions of PCI DSS. The most recent of such compliance standards is version 1.2 which has 12 requirements for enhancing payment account security. These requirements are designed to address a broad range of data security, from software design to policies and procedures. Version […]
Password security is important within your online network security and knowing the different types of identity theft is great, but what are the best ways to prevent identity theft? Many believe that PCI compliance does not affect them because they are not a payment processor or don’t run a gateway. This is a common mistake and can […]
Part one of this series talked about identity thieves wanting your password, and we discussed ways to protect against having your passwords compromised. Securing your password seems to be only 25 percent of the battle these days. Many network security attacks and breaches, like the Heartland Breach, occurred from within. So it is important to be PCI […]
The word “hacker” is often associated with the terms crime and fraud. However, hackers can be a good defense against online fraud, such as the “white hat” hackers that work to prevent fraud and fight identity theft. Unfortunately, white hat hackers aren’t as common as criminal hackers. It is important to first understand what different types of […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced that “creditors” will not have to worry about fines associated with non compliance with Red Flag Rules until May 1st 2009. A creditor is defined as any entity that extends, renews, or continues credit and any entity that regularly arranges for the extension, renewal, or continuation of credit. For example, mortgage brokers, […]
In 2005, a credit card giant was brought down by a massive security breach. It was said that at least 68,000 MasterCard account numbers were taken from the CardSystems database and that approximately 40 million cards of various brands were exposed. Since this breach, we have implemented PCI DSS and have come a long way […]
In previous posts I have talked about Visa and MasterCard turning to Debit and prepaid cards to re-coop money lost on defaulted credit cards. PIN-based debit transactions type of cards used to be the cheapest form of electronic payment a merchant could accept – that seems to be changing these days. It is estimated that PIN-based […]
Interchange Rates and Merchant Accounts If we have learned anything over the last year, it is that no industry is immune from the financial crisis. Your first line of defense against the economy is your job. The second is your credit cards. Credit cards have forced a whole new financial difficulty on our country. In […]
As if there is not enough controversy over Interchange Rates charged to merchants, we now have to deal with consumer credit cards interest rates increasing drastically without notice. Some consumer spending experts say this may hinder spending even more this holiday season. What is our government doing to fix the issue? Federal regulators jumped into action and […]
It seems as though anytime a company gets large enough, there will always be people who feel it is unfair and begin to wage war on what they don’t know. I have talked about Visa and MasterCard having to pay large settlements to Discover after a long anti-trust battle. Although Visa lost that battle, the war on […]
