As the world becomes more digitally connected, the risk of cyber-attacks on businesses continues to rise. Larger organisations, although being perceived as difficult targets, are the victim of choice for hackers. Because large organisations deal with more financial and sensitive customer data, on a daily basis, there is more for hackers to gain, and therefore more for the business to lose. One of the most significant challenges facing organisations today is maintaining PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance.
What is PCI DSS?
PCI DSS compliance is a set of guidelines established by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to protect the sensitive information of credit cardholders. It states that organisations that handle cardholder data must meet a list of technical and operational criteria. If large businesses fail to comply with the PCI DSS standards, they can receive significant fines and legal liabilities, as well as reputational damage and a loss of customer trust.
How can a large business stay compliant in 2023?
Maintaining PCI DSS compliance is crucial for any large organisation that handles cardholder data. Here are our top nine tips on how large businesses can stay compliant in 2023, despite the difficult economic climate:
1. Two passwords are better than one
Implement strong access controls to limit access to sensitive customer data to authorised personnel only. Use complex passwords, multi-factor authentication (2FA at the very least), and role-based access controls.
According to Slate, when users perform the second step of authentication using an on-device prompt, 100% of bot attacks, 99% of bulk phishing attacks, and 90% of targeted attacks are prevented.
2. Close your backdoor(s)
Conduct regular vulnerability scans to identify weaknesses and backdoors in your organisation’s IT infrastructure. This could be through penetration testing or ethical hacking. Address any uncovered vulnerabilities immediately.
3. Stay up to date
Keep software up to date, including operating systems, web browsers, and any other software used to process or store cardholder data.
4. Keep an eye on anomalies
Monitor network activity to identify potential threats and anomalies. Immediately take appropriate action to prevent data breaches before they happen. Implement intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS), and ensure you have a disaster recovery strategy and solution in place.
5. Teach security
Train every employee that works with customer data on security best practices. According to a study by IBM, 95% of cyber security breaches are a result of human error. To reduce the risk of data breaches, alleviate the naivety of your employees and colleagues. This training should include information on how to identify phishing emails, create strong passwords, and handle sensitive customer data.
6. Only use compliant recording solutions
Whether you are recording voice, video or text-based interactions, you have an obligation to ensure that you are doing so in a compliant manner and that you are protecting the sensitive and personal information contained within these interactions. For example, the Liquid Voice solution allows organisations processing card payments to pause and resume recording to ensure that this sensitive information is not captured. Additionally, we can apply this ability to redact sensitive data to your legacy recordings.
7. Encrypt yourself
Implement encryption to protect sensitive data from unauthorised access. Use strong encryption algorithms in line with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), to protect cardholder data both in transit and in storage.
8. Inform customers
Ensure that customer-facing staff and success managers are speaking to customers about their data security. For example, make sure that customers know not to share certain details or data via unsecure methods.
9. Only work with trusted providers
You shouldn’t be sharing customer data with any third parties unless it is absolutely necessary, agreed on by the customer, and the third party is a trusted organisation with the same security measures as you in place. If you are sharing data with any organisation that isn’t PCI DSS compliant, even if your organisation is, you are then in breach.
By implementing these tips as the new norm in your organisation, you can ensure that you maintain your PCI DSS compliance. There are more ways to remain compliant, but these top tips from Liquid Voice should give you a starting position. If you would like to find out more about PCI DSS compliance, or how to better manage customer data (whether that be present or legacy) then please reach out to us!
You can find out more about the compliance and legacy recording management solutions we offer on our solution pages.
