Finextra Interviews PCI SSC

Finextra interviews Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). Click here to go to Finextra and watch it or click the link below to launch it in your external player. Finextra video - Bob Russo, PCI SSC, 04 December 2008

Protecting payments data

Talks about the council's recent introduction of a quality assurance program for assessors, this month's global compliance mandate from Visa, and what the organization has learned from recent data security breaches at merchants and service providers.

The PCI SSC is a global, open industry standards body providing management of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), PIN Entry Device (PED) security requirements and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). These standards aim to ensure that merchants and other organisations that process card payments prevent credit card fraud, hacking and various other security vulnerabilities and threats.

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21 Million German Bank Accounts for Sale

Report: 21 million German bank accounts for sale | ITworld

IDG News Service —

Black market criminals are offering to sell details on 21 million German bank accounts for €12 million (US$15.3 million), according to an investigative report published Saturday.

Reporters for WirtschaftsWoche (Economic Week) managed to obtain a CD containing 1.2 million accounts after a November face-to-face meeting with criminals in a Hamburg hotel, according to the magazine.

Posing as buyers working for a gambling business, the journalists were able to strike a price of €0.55 per record, or €12 million for all the data. They were given a CD containing the 1.2 million accounts when they asked for assurances that the information they would be buying was legitimate.

That CD contained the names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, account numbers and bank routing numbers of the theft victims, they reported. In some cases, the victim's account balance was also provided. The data was most likely collected from call center employees, the magazine reports.

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Dormant Accounts at Risk?

After reading this press release, I asked myself how many dormant accounts I might have.  According to a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid for Capital One, in Canada, there are more than 41 million abandoned online accounts, and they all have risk exposure to ID theft and/or fraud.

The Cap1 study shows that two out of the average of nine online accounts owned by Canadian adults (adding up to a total of 41 million accounts) have become inactive as a result of the lack of their use throughout 2007.

These abandoned online accounts, ranging from shopping and email to social networking and dating sites, become vulnerable to ID theft and fraud. This is due to the fact that even if customers do not use the accounts anymore, they still leave personal information available, including names, addresses, dates of birth or telephone numbers online.

According to the results of Cap1's survey, the main reasons for which Canadian customers pay little attention to inactive accounts are their lack of awareness or carelessness. (eh?)

Thus, 28 percent of them were not even aware of the fact that they had to close their inactive account(s), 23 percent stated that they even forgot about it, while 15 percent forgot the password.

When asked about how often they review their credit bureau report, 72 percent of Canadians answered "rarely" or "never". 20 of them gave the same answer when asked whether they check if a certain website is secure before making an online purchase. 12 percent of Canadians rarely/never look for unexpected or incorrect charges in their credit card statements.

The study was conducted by market research firm Ipsos Reid, on behalf of Capital One.

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