Credit Card Council Releases Cyber Risk Mitigation Guidance
By: Judy Greenwald (Business Insurance) August 2014
The payment card industry’s regulatory organization has issued guidance to help merchants and others reduce credit card security risks.
Businesses are rapidly adopting a third-party operations model that can put payment data at risk, the Wakefield, Massachusetts-based PCI Security Standards Council L.L.C. said Thursday in a statement.
It said the guidance will help organizations and their business partners reduce this risk by better understanding their respective roles in securing card data.
It said the guidance developed by a PCI special interest group of 160 organizations including merchants, banks and third-party service providers provides recommendations for meeting the PCI data security standard requirement to ensure payment data and systems entrusted to third parties are maintained in a “secure and compliant manner.”
Most retailers are complying with this standard, says an expert.
PCI said the guidance includes recommendations on how to:
• Conduct due diligence and risk assessment when engaging third-party service providers to help organizations understand the services provided and how the PCI data security standard requirements will be met by those services.
• Implement a consistent process for engaging third parties that includes setting expectations, establishing a communications plan, and mapping third-party services and responsibilities to applicable PCI data security standard requirements.
• Develop appropriate agreements, policies and procedures with third-party service providers that includes considerations for the most common issues that arise in this type of relationship.
• Implement an ongoing process for maintaining and managing third-party relationships throughout the lifetime of the engagement, including the development of a robust monitoring program.
