100k Cards Breached - Avoid Being the Next in Line

..Yet another example that today's hacker is more motivated by financial gain than ever before with stolen payment cards continuing to be actively traded on the black market. In this example an organisation in Finland was breached with over 100,00 payment cards exposed. Whilst this is a small incident compared with others experienced over the past 5 years, it is a gentle reminder to organisations that store, transmit or process payment card data and in particular, those who remain unaware of what sensitive data resides on their internal and external systems.

At Ground Labs we continually receive updates on the latest data compromises to occur which only continues to highlight the problem of insecure sensitive information storage. A compromise earlier this year in Finland reminds us of the dangers that organisations who store, tranmit or process payment cards face.

Organisations who utilise Card Recon can reduce the risks from becoming the next victim of such a crime through the identification and removal of all unencrypted and unprotected Card Holder Data (CHD). We continue to hear from new customers who were already PCI Compliant and have had their PCI QSA perform an onsite review against the 12 requirements of the PCI DSS, yet still find large volumes of stored payment card numbers the first time they run Card Recon.

Whilst this example highlights the power of Card Recon, we remind all organisations that whether or not you decide to use Card Recon as part of your PCI Compliance programme, you must still ensure appropriate ongoing controls are in place to manage and limit further leakage of such information and enforce ongoing compliance with all aspects of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (non-compliant storage is only part of the problems that we commonly see).

It is important to remember that being PCI Compliant is not one-off event. It is an ongoing process that must be managed, maintained and continually verified to ensure an organisation continues upholding a strong security posture of it's systems, policies and procedures related to the transmission, processing and storage of payment card data.

For more information on Card Recon please visit our product information page.

For more information on PCI Compliance or to download the PCI DSS please visit the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council website

• Copyright © 2008-2010 Ground Labs Pty Limited - All rights reserved
• Contact
• Legal
• Privacy
• Site Map