Best practices for fighting credit card theft

3Delta Systems issued a set of business best practices for protecting customer credit card account information and minimizing corporate exposure to online payment scams.

3DSI’s tips consist of tried-and-true tools and techniques for companies to use in detecting and deterring online thieves from stealing sensitive payment data from their computer systems.

Study after study shows that failure to protect sensitive payment data from a breach leads to massive financial costs, customer defections, lawsuits and loss of reputation.

ccording to the Ponemon Institute’s latest U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, data heists during 2010 cost companies an average of $7.2 million, or $214 per compromised customer record – up 7 percent from $6.75 million, or $204 per record, in 2009. When the Institute launched its first data breach study in 2005, the average was $4.54 million, or $138 per record.

Any business that accepts or processes credit cards or purchase cards (p-cards) online, in a store, by phone or by mail must protect and restrict access to that data according to 12 specific Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) established by the major credit card brands that make up the PCI Security Standards Council.