1. Relate a real-world case study on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) standard noncompliance and its implications. Failure to protect sensitive customer data can result in serious Business losses and other major negative impacts in business operations. Card Systems Solutions and its successor has been known for the world’s largest client data comprise ever since. This was due to failure to properly protect sensitive card information of millions of customers’ cards it processed during its operation. The company kept sensitive personal information for its clients of which it had no useful reason to store it. The said information was stored in the company’s network which proved insecure following a SQL injection attack that saw millions of card information compromised thus leading to a huge loss due to fraudulent purchases using the stolen information from the company’s system.
This incident saw the FTC identify several practices that could have possibly led to the breach. These included failure to use strong passwords, failure to employ sufficient measure to restrict system access to computers and the internet, some of which were low-cost and easy to establish measures nevertheless, the company did not carry out regular tests to assess the vulnerability of their system to the outside world, a situation that made them vulnerable to even the simplest attacked.
Data breaches like these have serious implications for the business operations and could even lead to the collapse of the whole system, where the law is applicable the Company’s systems are put under supervision to make sure they meet the newest regulation for financial data protection and regular auditing to make sure the system is stable and secure.
2. Distinguish how the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a standard and not a law, and how it defines requirements for information systems security controls and countermeasures.
PCI DSS is a fundamental standard established by major credit companies to create a baseline on how personal information on cardholders, their transactions, and other sensitive information is collected, transferred to requesting parties and most importantly how the above data
The major credit card companies formed the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. This council was created to combat lack of security, hackers, and misuse of cardholder information. The council
The cancellation and reissuance of a credit card or debit card affected by the breach;
The PCI DSS is a set of policies and standards that was developed by major credit-card companies. These companies include Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express. These standards are not law, but are required in order to accept payments from clients that are holders of these types of cards. The standards are aimed at providing security to the clients’
Recently, JP Morgan Chase was hacked in June 2014 which led to the compromise of data related with 83 million accounts. It was in late July when the attack was discovered and still took time till mid of August to stop the attack. [1] There are many more examples like this, which demonstrates that today organizations struggle to detect the data breach. In the wake of such undetected data breach, the strategy towards information security should be changed from static risk and vulnerability assessments to more adaptive systems and policies.
called as PCI-DSS is that the standard is made to help the controls of the card holder information also, its chiefly done to the turn away the credit card misinterpretation by exposure. The PCI-DSS
Data security failures cause significant damage to a company. The level of harm caused determines the extent of ruin. It might go as far as forcing businesses to close down. The non-compliance with regulations has made data security quite a big deal. It is the duty of a company’s information officer to ensure the privacy and security of the company’s customers’ information and, most importantly, the company’s data parse. Contrary to the public perception that hackers are the leading cause of data breaches, as they are portrayed in movies, the greatest threat (namely the way these hackers get their information) is actually the employee’s unawareness. In a recent study, it was identified that inadequate employee training and a lack of threat awareness are actually the major threat to data privacy and security.
Regardless of the fact that they happen quite often, both internal and external security breaches are surprisingly unforeseen by many corporations. It is imperative that companies know how to go about dealing with one when a breach does occur. It seems that “the best approach to forensic response is to plan the response before an incident occurs” (Week 5 Lecture). There should be a way for employees to know how to handle a security breach and prevent future occurrences. Each individual company needs to have a standard operating procedure that discusses the processes for e-mail, acceptable use, physical security, and incident response.
In the case, the hackers used firms’ secured information of financial transaction at the point of sale to copy fake card information for their own use. They would be able to make large purchases using the data on the cards. The only information the hackers would need is the technology to gain access to the firms’ information system, card numbers, and a method copy the cards.
I examine the evolution of credit card fraud in regards of the technology or methodology fraudsters used specifically within the e-commerce industry, and discuss various security concerns companies have for establishing online shopping sites. The appearance of credit cards and the growing e-commerce industry in the past decade has provided fraudsters more ways to commit fraud through online activities than ever. Numerous underground activities existed to provide conveniences for fraudsters to buy and sell credit card information at low prices in order to perform fraud in many different ways. With the frequent data breaches in the retailing industry lately, many security concerns in establishing online shopping sites have emerged.
The first threat is Social Engineering. The Payment Card Industry is a prime target for Social Engineers because they can gain larger profits off of the information. With this information a theft can steal larger amounts of money in a short period.
Database security and protection is a significant concern for organizations across the world, evidenced by the number of reported incidents with regards to unauthorized exposure to sensitive information. As the amount of data that organizations collect, retain and share continues to escalate, so does the importance of having a strong database security. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a website that keeps track of data breaches that were reported by companies, according to its research more than 159 million records were breached in 2015 through the course of 226 separate breach events. With the loss of unprotected data, can result in steep expenses for a company such as legal fees, call centers, customer losses, and the ambiguous amount of bad publicity. A Forrester Research survey concluded that an average security breach can cost a company between $90 and $305 per lost record. Given the increase number of data breaches, there is a corresponding need to properly plan ways to better protect and monitor the database systems through access control, SQL injection prevention, and encryption of data.
TJX was one of the biggest retail chains present almost all over the world but was equally vulnerable to the security breaches. Due to its massive popularity, a security concern at TJX would affect the masses and could possibly lead to a financial downturn in company’s figures. The main concern haunting the stakeholders of TJX was the massive security breach in its information technology infrastructure caused by the weak encryption techniques that they followed which ultimately resulted in gain of access to sensitive customer data by the unauthorized users. A continued trend of this sort will make the customers apprehensive in using their services in the long run.Though the company claimed to have a robust IT system in place, the continuous intrusion attacks by various hackers suggested otherwise.
These modern cards with microchips imbedded in them have been around since the early 1990’s in France. Only until recently, October 1, 2015, have they become a standard in the United States. Due to the numerous large scale financial card breaches affecting consumers and retailers in since the year 2000, Target, Home Depot, TJX, and Heartland to name a few, the financial institutions decided it was time to enhance security at point of sale (POS) terminals. This self-imposed security enhancement would come at a great cost to merchants who would have to upgrade their POS terminals and to the financial card companies who
In this modern era of technology, we extensively make use of virtual money. Credit and Debit cards have become an integral part of the world’s economy. Due to this extensive usage of cards, we have become a “cashless society”. We make use of credit cards to make online payments, to buy items at retailers and grocery stores; almost anywhere we go and purchase, we extensively make use of credit cards. This over dependency and usage of credit cards has given rise to new form of crime called the Credit Card fraud.
PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. When referring to the subject of PCI compliance, you are actually talking about a set of industry standards known as PCI DSS, where the “DSS” stands for Data Security Standards. These standards were designed to ensure that businesses handle credit card information in a secure manner.