A Wake up Call for Business Leaders

9 years ago

Global study by Gemalto shows increasing security risks to payment data and lack of confidence in securing mobile payment methods

A recent survey of more than 3,700 IT security practitioners from more than a dozen major industry sectors conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of Gemalto shows a critical need for organizations to improve their payment data security practices.

According to the independent study on Payment Data Security, over half (54%) of those surveyed said their company had a security or data breach involving payment data an average of four times in the past two years. 55% said they did not know where all their payment data is stored or located. Ownership for payment data security is not centralized with 28% of respondents saying responsibility is with the CIO, 26% saying it is with the business unit, 19% with the compliance department, 15% with the CISO, and 14% with other departments.

In the Middle East and South Africa region, around 37% of the companies agree that their company’s security personnel has the expertise to effectively protect their payment data.

“Given what we’ve seen with traditional payment methods and data security, it’s time that companies realize compliance is not enough and fully rethink their security practices. said Sébastien Pavie, Regional Sales Director, MEA at Gemalto.

According to the study, acceptance of new payment methods such as mobile, contactless and e-wallets will double over the next two years and companies are likely to face even more difficulties in securing new payment methods.