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Protection of customer financial data cannot be placed squarely on IT

25/01/2012 - By Frank LoSchiavo

The protection of customer financial data cannot be placed squarely on IT.

Tag: Merchant Account

A report released earlier this week by CyberSource found that merchants are experiencing incidents of fraudulent purchases, likely in response to growing awareness and a steady stream of breakthroughs in data security and encryption services.

Another survey of released this week by Experian and the Ponemon Institute assessed IT professionals' experience with data breaches and other security concerns facing merchants and small businesses worldwide.

Participants largely agreed that businesses need to follow the loss or theft of consumer data to understand the root cause of data breaches and to protect consumers from future harm. In regards to handling the consequences of a data breach, respondents cited the need to retain outside legal counsel (56 percent) and assess harm to victims (50 percent).

"The responsibility of keeping customers' information secure cannot lie solely on the shoulders of IT; rather every executive in the organization should be aware since the reverberation of a breach will be felt by everyone," said Ozzie Fonseca, senior director at Experian Data Breach Resolution. "Companies must put measures in place … to help protect their customers' information."

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