NEW YORK, June 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has been awarded a research project by the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC). PwC will perform industry research to support the PCI SSC in determining which technology approaches may be available to help merchants, service providers and processors more effectively secure cardholder data in accordance with the various Standards released by the Council.
PwC will research, identify and evaluate technologies that can help reduce or eliminate the storage, processing, or transmission of cardholder data. PwC's evaluation and recommendation will help the PCI SSC to consider technologies that should improve adoption rates and reduce costs for the implementation of the Standards. PwC will also provide an assessment of the impact of the new technology approaches on the current PCI Data Security Standards and considerations for implementing the new technologies.
"As the card payment landscape continues to evolve, information protection, risk mitigation, security and controls remain the ultimate concerns for both businesses and customers," said Mark Lobel, PricewaterhouseCoopers principal focused on security and privacy issues. "We look forward to leveraging our deep experience in information security and payment processing technologies that will hopefully make it easier for the PCI SSC to define standards that help protect the safety of cardholder data."
PwC's Advisory professionals focused on security and privacy are dedicated to providing clients with industry leading security advice, such as the assessment, strategy, design, implementation and configuration of enterprise security, including payment and identity/access management solutions. PwC has successfully delivered security strategy and identity management implementations at 15 of the Fortune 25 and security assessment and/or implementation solutions at 78 percent of the Fortune 500.
"We selected PricewaterhouseCoopers because of their ability to understand the card payment environment, identify and understand the technologies that will fit stakeholders across the payment chain needs and help enable the Council's standards," said Bob Russo, general manager with the PCI SSC. "Their forward thinking approach and deep experience aligns with our mission and goal of enhancing cardholder data security by fostering the broad adoption of payment card industry standards and keeping customers' data safe."
Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
About the PCI Security Standards Council
The mission of the PCI Security Standards Council is to enhance payment account security by fostering broad adoption of the PCI Data Security Standard and other standards that increase payment data security.
The PCI Security Standards Council was formed by the major payment card brands American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. to provide a transparent forum in which all stakeholders can provide input into the ongoing development, enhancement and dissemination of the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS), PIN Entry Device (PED) Security Requirements and the Payment Applications Data Security Standard (PA-DSS). Merchants, banks, processors and point of sale vendors are encouraged to join as Participating Organizations.
About PricewaterhouseCoopers' Advisory Practice
PricewaterhouseCoopers' business advisory professionals provide clients with the confidence to succeed by helping them anticipate, create and manage change. Whether clients are proactively implementing change or reacting to an unplanned event, we leverage our network's resources, deep industry experience, and functional acumen across the areas of operations, finance, organizational strategy and structure, process improvement, human resources effectiveness, technology integration and implementation, risk mitigation and crisis management to help organizations effect sustainable change.
About PricewaterhouseCoopers
PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 154,000 people in 153 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.
"PricewaterhouseCoopers" refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP or as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network of other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.