UK Companies Confront the Issue of Credit Card Security

LONDON, Aug. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Hacking is on the rise in Europe, and unfortunately many UK companies are still playing catchup in the race against cyber criminals. New data theft methods like memory scraping malware are helping hackers infiltrate seemingly-secure systems with relative ease, resulting in the theft of potentially millions of customer data records whilst generating significant financial liability and a steep drop in trust with their customers.

With all the news of data breaches posing an even greater risk than ever before, it's no surprise that an increasing number of companies are choosing to prioritise the safeguarding of their sensitive data, as apparent by the 400 industry professionals who attended the PCI London event last month at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel.

The latest event in this data-security focussed forum retained its key focus on the protection of payment card data including credit and debit cards which continue to be a prime target for hackers due to their high black market value. The industry representation at this forum including some of the leading security auditors, compliance executives and risk professionals from UK organisations who handle large volumes of consumer payment information.

One evolving trend commonly discussed amongst attendees was the issue of Crypto Hacks - one particular story circulating around the event venue was about a European company that found itself at the mercy of a ransomware. The hackers demanded that the company paid them a large sum of money unless they wanted to have a percentage of their database deleted for every day their demands were not met. This is a new and evolving criminal behavior pattern - stolen data which can easily be sold can instead be monetised in other ways, like holding it for ransom.

A keynote presentation was delivered by the Global PCI Program Director and Treasury Information Security for Philips, Nancy Rodriguez. Rodriguez spoke about using metrics to measure company and third party compliance, the importance of Data Breach Insurance, and other interesting event topics and advise for merchants.  Other notable speakers also delivered critical advice including the Vice President of Payment System Risk at Visa Europe, Colin Whitaker, and Marc Cramer, the Principal Consultant on Cybercrime for ING.

Ground Labs, one of the event's sponsors, showcased its Card Recon data discovery tool developed to help companies of any size ensure that no credit card details are being stored in their systems without encryption.

"Our cardholder data discovery tools are purpose-built to meet the PCI Compliance guidelines and not only simplify compliance goals for cardholder data storage, but to go beyond that and ensure a broad variety of sensitive customer information is identified and secured," said Stephen Cavey, the Director of Corporate Development for Ground Labs.

In addition, Mr. Cavey confirmed that maintaining PCI compliance requires constant vigilance. "As long-term supporters of this forum, Ground Labs continues to remain focused on the common challenge of helping merchants maintain PCI compliance. Many companies invest considerable energy and resources to achieve PCI compliance, but subsequently end the project and move on, resulting in falling out of compliance shortly thereafter and once again posing a threat to the security of any sensitive customer data they may be handling."

Ground Labs will be once again sponsoring the next PCI London event, taking place on January 22, 2015.

For more information about the PCI series, visit http://www.pci-portal.com/

About Ground Labs

Ground Labs is a global leader in the development of security and auditing software for PCI Compliance. Ground Labs software is used to perform sensitive data discovery on computer systems worldwide, helping companies prevent security breaches that result in the theft of customers' credit and debit card numbers. With offices in Seattle, London and Singapore, Ground Labs products are relied upon by more than 2,500 customers across 80+ countries.

For more information including a free trial, visit www.groundlabs.com.

For more information, please contact:

Stephen Cavey
[email protected]
Tel: +44-203-137-9898
www.groundlabs.com

SOURCE Ground Labs Pte Limited