PCI DSS Compliance Articles

Tesco, Target, eBay, Office – all major retailers with a significant online presence and always seeking to understand what their customers want to buy, how they want to buy it, and what would make them buy more. The delivered retail experience and an intimate understanding of consumer psychology are where the retail battles are fought in 2014.

The interesting thing about the breach reported by Vancouver-based Information Systems & Supplies Inc. is that it highlights the responsibility now borne by 3rd party suppliers to PCI merchants. Remote access services such as LogMeIn or TeamViewer provide superb levels of functionality equivalent to a direct Remote Desktop session, and, naturally, are highly secure in their architecture and operation.

Most organizations will turn to a QSA when undertaking a PCI Compliance project. A Qualified Security Assessor is the guy you need to satisfy with any security measures and procedures you implement to meet compliance with the PCI DSS so it makes sense to get them to tell you what you need to do.

PCI DSS Version 3 will soon be with us. Such is the anticipation that the PCI Security Standards Council have released a sneak preview ‘Change Highlights’ document.

Using FIM, or file integrity monitoring has long been established as a keystone of information security best practices. Even so, there are still a number of common misunderstandings about why FIM is important and what it can deliver.

Simplest is still best - whether they are software-based (as in the so-called 'Dexter' or 'VSkimmer' Trojan - Google it for more information) or classic hardware interception devices, card skimming is still a highly effective means of stealing card data.

I was recently sent a whitepaper by a colleague of mine which covered the subject of tokenization. It took a belligerent tone regarding the PCI DSS and the PCI Security Councils views of Tokenization, which is understandable in context - the vendors involved with the whitepaper are fighting their corner and believe passionately that tokenization is a great solution to the problem of how best to protect cardholder data.