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Visa says merchant security is improving
July 31, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - Visa USA says 96 percent of the large businesses that accept Visa cards have confirmed they are not storing sensitive account data.
"We know that merchants that store full magnetic-stripe data expose themselves to risk exponentially," said Michael E. Smith, senior vice president of Enterprise Risk and Compliance for Visa USA. "By removing prohibited data from their payment systems, large and small businesses alike are denying hackers the data they covet for use in counterfeiting payment cards."
Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is reported to Visa by acquiring financial institutions.
According to Visa, as of July 2007, 40 percent of Level 1 merchants validated compliance with the industry security standard. Another 50 percent have submitted their validation and are actively working to address remaining security deficiencies, Visa said in a news release.
The remaining 10 percent are working on their initial assessments. Level 1 merchants tapped by Visa for improvements from 2004 through 2006 must validate compliance by Sept. 30, 2007. Level 1 merchants identified in 2007 must validate compliance by Sept. 30, 2008.
Among Level 2 merchants, 33 percent have validated compliance, while another 42 percent have submitted initial validation reports.
The remaining 25 percent are beginning the validation process. Level 2 merchants identified in 2006 must validate compliance by Dec. 31, 2007. Level 2 merchants identified in 2007 must validate compliance by Dec. 31, 2008.
At Level 3, 52 percent of the merchants have validated compliance, and another 22 percent have submitted their initial validation reports.
The remaining 24 percent have not yet validated compliance.
Visa says it also has focused on driving compliance among VisaNet processors and agents. To date, 88 percent of VisaNet processors and 65 percent of third-party agents have validated compliance with the PCI DSS.
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