Retailers Facing Critical IT Security Deadline - ' Page 2 ' (
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Much of the impetus for this crackdown is effective professional fraud teams operating beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement, often in the former Soviet Union.
"This is turning on light bulbs for a lot of people who have been dragging their heels," said Greg Buzek, president of the IHL Consulting Group. "Millions of customer IDs have been stolen. It's a very real and a very dangerous situation when it comes to the potential of identity theft."
This may indeed turn on a lot of light bulbs for retail IT executives, but many retail vendors are hoping the new pressure will ring a lot of cash registers for them.
Not surprisingly, retailers have been inundated with offers from various retail software companies saying they will take the pain and effort out of the new rules and the new validation requirements.
Triversity, for example, has announced that it has incorporated PCI rules into its Transactionware POS software suite, along with audit trails.
LaGarde's StoreFront e-commerce software is another product trying to get in on the magstripe madness. The company announced an alliance with CardinalCommerce to integrate a series of payer authentication services.
LaGarde CEO and founder Bob LaGarde looked on the bright side, arguing in a written statement that these moves are aimed at increasing overall consumer e-commerce activity. "We see this as a tremendously exciting opportunity to better arm e-businesses to combat credit card fraud and simultaneously help inspire greater consumer confidence in online purchasing, as consumers begin to recognize the greater credit card security."
Recent publicity surrounding well-known credit card security problems has only intensified the pressure for retailers to meet the June 30 deadline. Two widely known incidents involve Polo Ralph Lauren finding credit card information "misappropriated" late last year and HSBC Holdings warning 180,000 credit card customers that their data may have been stolen.
Retail Center Editor Evan Schuman can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com.
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