Report:
Merchants Secure Data to Protect Brand
July 25, 2011
Nearly 70 percent of respondents cited the need to “protect
the brand” as the primary driver for tightening controls against hackers and
other payment security risks, according to e-commerce processor
CyberSource and security firm Trustwave. Only 26 percent said avoiding fines
resulting from non-compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security
Standard (PCI DSS) were the key motivator. “A breach has serious consequences
for nearly every division of an e-commerce merchant’s organization,” said Dayna
Ford, senior director of product management at CyberSource. “But by far the
most damaging impact is to the company’s brand, affecting revenue, customer
loyalty, and even stock valuation. Knowledge of this phenomenon is now
widespread, so we’re not surprised at the survey finding that puts brand
integrity as the most important rationale for payment security investment.” The
Payment Security Practices and Trends
Report found that 75 percent of PCI DSS Level 1 merchants that have removed
payment data from their environments spend less than $500,000 on their
payment security infrastructure. Only 60 percent of those that keep data
in-house can make that claim. Respondents also said they felt the threat of
payment data theft from inside employees was about equal to the threat from
external hackers.