PCI awareness hits all time high

More UK firms than ever before have signalled their intention to become compliant with PCI standard according to survey

UK firms are more aware than ever before of the need to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) standard.

Figures released by customer interaction specialist The Logic Group, which questioned several hundred public sector and commercial organisations in the UK, showed that the amount of firms holding back over becoming compliant has dropped by almost half.

This is mainly due to the increasingly sophisticated and high profile cases of card security breaches in the media, resulting in almost total awareness of the standard.
Last year, 11 per cent of organisation were found to be fully compliant, according to the Logic Group’s figures, but in 2008 a total of 15 per cent reported full compliancy. In addition a further 54 per cent are in remediation and 34 per cent expect to be compliant within the next six months.

Robin Adams, director of security risk and compliance at The Logic Group, said: “For the first time since we started to monitor progress through the survey four years ago, we’re seeing the majority of respondents believing that their business will benefit from implementing PCI. We feel this is the year of the final push – where we’ll break the back of the compliance problem. With total UK card fraud losses increasing by 14 per cent in the first half of this year – the impetus has never been greater.”

Earlier this month the advisory board of the Security Council responsible for setting the PCI DSS guidelines met in Brussels to discuss progress in Europe, and developments for the standard’s implementation.

Bob Russo, general manager of the PCI SCC, said: “The Logic Group PCI survey has been a useful resource in providing a barometer of progress towards PCI compliance within the UK for the past four years. The UK is now firmly on the way towards meeting PCI compliance.”