50% of Companies Have Failed or Are Not Compliant with Payment Transactions Security Standard, Poll Finds

According to a recent poll by SentryBay, the UK-based cybersecurity software company, the infrastructure of over 21% of surveyed companies has failed key PCI compliance assessments, designed to assist them to maintain high security standards when processing customer card payments. In addition, a further 29.3% said that they had no confidence in their own company’s compliance when it came to PCI DSS.

The poll, which was carried out earlier this month on Twitter amongst cyber security professionals, also found that there was a lack of confidence in the PCI standards within today’s hybrid working environments. More than 50% said that they either believed PCI regulations were not relevant or that they needed adjusting to suit current working models.

The PCI DSS standard mandates that organisations maintain a secure network and systems to host transactions, including a properly configured network firewall to protect cardholder data, and restrict data access to those with a genuine business need.

This is proving difficult, as the SentryBay poll found out. When asked what the biggest challenges were to ensuring compliance, 30.7% said it was too complex while 23.6% thought that that the contradictions of the process were the biggest barrier.

For businesses that are trying to manage their evolving security landscapes as the workforce remains in flux following the pandemic, addressing the numerous security requirements of PCI is a daily task. Over 24% of respondents said that educating employees on PCI compliance was their biggest challenge.

Dave Waterson, CEO at SentryBay, said: “Data security and compliance are common challenges across every touch point of the customer journey and companies should have more confidence in the standards and their own ability to adhere to them, however tasking this is. Organisations should work towards being compliant and secure simultaneously by changing their culture to address the layers of security required to meet standards.”