After months of work, the PCI Security Standards Council has today released the PCI DSS 2.0 standard, the `security rules' under which all organisations processing credit card transactions - and this includes almost all businesses accepting debit, credit and charge cards - must achieve minimum standards of security and best practice. 

Shulman explained that the main virtue of PCI is the standard’s incredible opportunity to improve an enterprise’s overall security posture.  “Nobody is in business to be compliant,” explained Shulman.  “But our experience highlights a simple lesson: if you invest in controls to address PCI there is an incredible opportunity to improve overall security. Smart enterprises use PCI to increase budgets and put data security high on the executive priority list. Smart security teams use PCI as a springboard to transform how they protect consumer data—not just credit cards numbers.”

Shulman points out that the changes between PCI DSS 1.2 and v2.0 are relatively minor - which he ascribes to the maturity of the standard - there are a number of key highlights:

·       Scoping PCI assessments

·       Adopting a risk-based approach to vulnerability mitigation

·       Including more detailed standards for secure coding practices for custom built applications.

Also noteworthy, Shulman says, is that PCI DSS has been placed on a new three-year release cycle, so the next version is expected towards the end of 2013.

"The new life cycle allocates 1-year for full deployment of the recent standard, 1-year of feedback submission and review and 1-year for formalisation of the new revision," he says.

Against this backdrop, Imperva's CTO concludes that PCI DSS 2.0 has evolved into a unique set of regulations in a number of ways. Firstly it is industry- and not government-driven; and secondly, it includes specific guidance on the steps required to secure sensitive data.

"Since its inception, PCI has expanded awareness to data security risks and has driven major investments in data security technology and processes," he said.

"The evolution of PCI DSS by the PCI Council is aimed as adapting the standard to the evolving threat and technology landscape, while reducing the cost of compliance. PCI DSS 2.0 is an important step in that direction," he added.

For more on PCI DSS: www.pcisecuritystandards.org

For more on Imperva: www.imperva.com

ENDS

If you would like to speak to Amichai Shulman regarding PCI DSS 2.0 please contact Darshna Kamani on 020 7183 2834 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.