PCI DSS And Cyber Risk – Beware What Lurks Below The Surface

The increasing frequency and sophistication of security breaches expose organisations to wide ranging external and internal risks and key among these is the liability that can be imposed under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In this article, we explore the PCI DSS and its requirements in order to achieve compliance, as well as the consequences of breaching it.

Historically companies outside of the USA and Canada have faced limited exposure for breaching the PCI DSS. This is likely to change in the near future as financial institutions continue to incur significant losses to remediate customer fraud resulting from data breaches.

While the PCI DSS is not part of any law or regulation in Australia, all businesses that accept or process credit card payments are contractually required to comply and the PCI DSS regime is used internationally to impose significant penalties and costs on organisations.