As 2012 approaches, and companies continue to pursue compliance with the PCI DSS, the threat of data theft still looms large for merchants. On December 12, 2011, CNN, and other news organizations, ran a story announcing that US authorities arrested four Romanian Nationals in connection with a data theft scheme that had been active since 2008. The four individuals would hack into Point of Sale (POS) systems and install Trojans and key-stroke loggers to capture payment card data. This data was then used to make fraudulent purchases, primarily in Europe. 150 Subway restaurants, as well as over 50 other retailers, were victimized and an estimated 80,000 cards were compromised.
While a tragic story, the interesting part of this is the acknowledgment that the attacks had been ongoing since 2008–nearly four years before detection. This story is yet another example of how difficult it can be for retailers to protect data from theft and highlights the need for constant vigilance. PCI DSS compliance is simply not enough any longer to prevent data thieves from stealing data. TrustCommerce TC SMART products are designed to provide security for retailers and online merchants. By removing the data from merchant environments, there is nothing for the data thieves to steal. To learn more about TC SMART Products, please contact us at: 800.915.1680.
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