In another example of why it is incredibly important to secure your cardholder data, Visa & MasterCard both confirmed a breach of Global Payment’s processing network (http://bit.ly/GYqrLF).  The breach occurred between January 21, 2012 and February 25, 2012 most likely from parking garages in and around New York City (http://bit.ly/HoCdU1 and http://on.wsj.com/H7Kd4V).

Some tips to consider:

• Never store cardholder data in any manner that is not secure.  Even a locked file cabinet can be opened and cards stolen.
• Always make sure you are using a website that says https in the address bar. NEVER enter sensitive information on a page that does not show the “s” in the httpS.
• Always make sure credit card information is truncated – only showing the last four digits of the card.  This prevents a thief from accessing the sytem. If your terminal still prints out all 16 digits, please contact us to resolve the security risk today.

If a criminal accesses the information, YOU WILL BE HELD RESPONSIBLE and can pay fines ranging up to $250,000 AND a per-card replacement fee of approximately $5. Moral of the story – use common sense and practice safe financial options.

This entry was posted on March 30, 2012 at 4:36 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in business resources business services CCNJ compliance credit card processing fraud concerns MasterCard merchant account merchant awareness PCI Visa by ccnj No Comments Yet