UK’s payment services specialist allpay has announced its membership in the PCI Security Standards Council, an organisation formed to better protect credit card holder data in the wake of a series of data security breaches.
allpay will work with the council to achieve and enhance payment data security globally, through the ongoing development of the PCI Security Standards.
The PCI Security Standards Council is a global open body formed to develop, enhance, disseminate and assist with the understanding of security standards for payment account security.
The council was formed by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard, and Visa to develop, improve, disseminate and assist with the understanding of security standards for payment account security.
It promotes the payment card industry security standards and offers critical tools required for implementation of the standards like assessment and scanning qualifications, self-assessment questionnaires, training and education, and product certification programmes.
The council depends on merchants, service providers, payment device manufacturers, software developers, financial institutions and processors to improve payment data security.
allpay will receive previews of drafts and supporting materials and provide feedback shaping the final versions.
Established in 1994, allpay’s core business concentrates on providing bill payment services – primarily to the public sector – and handles £5 billion a year across 50 million transactions.
Content from our partners
The company will also have the option of recommending new initiatives for consideration. It joins a community of over 700 organisations.
PCI Security Standards Council general manager Stephen Orfei said: “In an era of increasingly sophisticated attacks on systems, adhering to the PCI DSS represents an entity’s best protection against network security threats and data breaches.
“By joining as a Participating Organisation, allpay Limited demonstrates it is playing an active part in mitigating the threats and improving the security of the payment chain globally by driving the security standards to higher levels of adoption and strength.”
allpay head of information security and compliance Simon Cook said the company looks forward to play a direct role in the ongoing development of PCI Security Standards:
“This is a brilliant opportunity for allpay to stay up-to-date with, and review in advance, standards before release and actively partake in decision-making,” Cook said.
