Looking Beyond PCI Compliance: More Ways To Increase Security

In the past few years, there has been a significant effort to curb debit and credit card fraud, especially through the integration of mobile and EMV payment processing. However, while these platforms tend to be effective shields against bogus payments, merchants should still seek to do more when it comes to ensuring they and their customers aren’t hit by fraud on a regular basis.

The fact is that cybersecurity should be of the utmost importance to merchants simply because it is becoming more pervasive all the time, according to Retail Dive. Increased connectedness also increases the likelihood that data can be stolen or services can be otherwise disrupted. Nearly 9 in 10 online attacks are focused on financial data or espionage, and global loss from these crimes could grow to as much as $6 trillion in the next four years.

What Does That Mean for Merchants Large and Small?

Unfortunately, while it’s the big-name companies that grab headlines with data breaches – Target was famously breached for an attack that allowed crooks to make off with payment data for 42 million shoppers – smaller companies are very much at risk as well, the report said. And to that point, it must be noted that Target has the financial capability to invest millions of dollars in security each year, which is a luxury that vast majority of merchants simply can’t come close to affording.