CYBERSECURITY
“ The expanding use of digital payments brings new risk and security concerns ”
CHIKA NWOSU MD OF PALMPAY
contactless purchases , users may be asked to enter their PIN more often . They may also be asked to take an additional security step to confirm their identity when making a payment . But is the payments industry doing enough ?
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ( PCI DSS ) is a set of security standards formed in 2004 by Visa , MasterCard , Discover Financial Services , JCB International and American Express to protect card data from hackers and thieves . Yet , despite ( PCI DSS ) compliance improving significantly in 2020 during the first wave of COVID , the cybersecurity threats organisations face today are even more evasive than they were even two years ago .
A 2022 Verizon Payment Security Report ( 2022 PSR ) has revealed that , overall , PCI DSS compliance improved significantly in 2020 , with 43.4 % of organisations maintaining full compliance , compared to 27.9 % in 2019 . Additionally , while over half ( 56.7 %) of organisations failed their interim validation assessment due to one or more security controls omissions , the security control gap still improved substantially , from a high 7.7 % in 2019 to a low 4.0 % in 2020 . Yet despite compliance improvements , Sampath Sowmyanarayan , CEO , Verizon Business says : “ We know that bad actors are still out there and stronger than ever .
“ Our own 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report ( 2022 DBIR ) found the financial sector continues to be victimised by motivated organised crime , with servers being involved in 90 % of financial breaches . As a result , working harder on your current strategy is unlikely to move the needle ,” he adds . cybermagazine . com 53