Guest Column: Best Practices In Data Protection

By Gary Palgon, Vice President of Product Management, nuBridges

As recent data breaches reveal, PCI compliance is not the silver bullet when it comes to protecting sensitive data from today's savvy cybercriminal. These cybercriminals are opportunists. They steal valuable consumer data from wherever it is easiest to reach. And for retailers, that can be at the point-of-sale, database or any application that touches consumer credit card data. So, protecting the data itself, no matter where it resides, is the key to an effective data protection program.

The good news for retailers and any enterprise that needs to protect sensitive customer, employee or corporate information – from credit card data to social security numbers and birthdates – is that there are extremely cost-effective, non-intrusive and iron-clad ways to secure data in applications and databases using strong encryption, key management and tokenization. There is simply no reason to worry about a costly reputation-tarnishing data breach. By implementing the right technology and well-honed data security best practices, retailers can – and do – keep valuable customer data out of the hands of thieves.

Compliance with the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and effective data protection solutions are a combination of documented best practices and technology solutions that protect cardholder data across the organization. This article presents the use of encryption, key management and tokenization as best practices in improving the security of credit card transactions, while at the same time minimizing the cost and complexity of PCI DSS compliance by reducing audit scope.