Nearly Nine out of Ten Websites Have Significant Security Vulnerabilities, Says Trust Guard

OGDEN, Utah, June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly nine out of ten websites have significant security vulnerabilities, and most are completely unaware of the problem. That's according to the scanning statistics Trust Guard™ (http://www.trust-guard.com) received after reviewing payment card industry (PCI) compliance scans of first-time clients' sites. And, because all major credit card companies now require PCI compliant scanning, the widespread website vulnerabilities should be of particular concern to anyone running a business online.

A whopping 86.7% of all PCI scans of Trust Guard clients failed with one or more medium, high, or severe vulnerability, reported the company. Fortunately for those clients, the Trust Guard PCI compliance scan spotlighted their security holes, allowing the clients to resolve the issues. But, wondered Trust Guard co-founder and CEO David Brandley, what about the rest of the Internet?

"I was shocked to see how many websites were not PCI compliant," Brandley said. "Think of the millions of sites online. A vast majority of them, according to our scanning statistics, have serious vulnerabilities. It's dangerous, it's ultimately jeopardizing the site owners' businesses, and it's just unacceptable."

So Brandley threw down the gauntlet for his team: Come up with a way to educate website owners about the PCI compliance issues they very likely had while providing a service that would allow anyone to check his or her site for the more than 45,000 known website vulnerabilities. The team came through in a big way, launching FreePCIScanning.com (http://www.freepciscanning.com), the new full-featured PCI compliance scanning service from Trust Guard.

FreePCIScanning.com allows anyone to enter his or her name, e-mail and IP address for a free Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV)-certified PCI compliance scan. Users receive a full report showing all website vulnerabilities the service found, along with detailed instructions on how to fix them.

"The PCI Security Standards Council requires any site that stores, processes, or transmits credit cards to be PCI compliant," Brandley said. "If a security breach occurs on a site that has not undergone PCI scanning and certification, the site owner can be fined thousands of dollars and possibly even lose the business he or she worked so hard to build. We at Trust Guard don't want to see that happen. FreePCIScanning.com is our effort at educating companies about the crucial need to find and fix security holes through PCI compliance scanning."

About Trust Guard™

A division of Global Marketing Strategies LLC (GMS), Trust Guard™ is the Internet's leading third-party website security and verification company. Trust Guard's PCI compliance scanning and verification seals help protect websites from hackers while inspiring consumer trust and greater brand loyalty. Learn more at http://www.trust-guard.com, follow the Trust Guard blog at http://blog.trust-guard.com, and get a free PCI compliance scan at http://www.freepciscanning.com.

Contact:
David Brandley CEO
Global Marketing Strategies LLC
877-893-8682
[email protected]
http://www.Trust-Guard.com

This press release was issued through eReleases® Press Release Distribution. For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE Trust Guard