Identity Theft Can Be Avoided With Vulnerability Assessments

It has been said that identity theft is the largest white collar crime ever in the United States.  As a website owner, you may wonder what you can do to protect your clients.  I am here to recommend that you should definitely have vulnerability assessments done on your website.  A vulnerability assessment is defined as the process of identifying, quantifying and prioritizing the vulnerabilities in a system.  You may have also heard of vulnerability scanning or pci scanning, it is really all basically the same thing.  And it is one of the best ways that you, as an online business owner, can protect the information of your customers.

Criminal identity theft occurs when a thieve gives another person’s name and personal information such as a drivers’ license, date of birth, or Social Security number (SSN) to obtain a job, housing, money, goods, or other services. It’s been reported by the Federal Trade Commission that in the last twelve months 9.93 million people have had some type of identity theft crime committed against them. Victims spend on average $1,200 in out-of-pocket expenses and an average of 175 hours in time and effort to resolve the many problems caused by identity thieves. The scary thing is that it takes a victim on average 12 months before they even realize they have been victimized!

So how can vulnerability assessments help? Having vulnerability scanning conducted by an approved scanning vendor yearly or even quarterly can protect your site and help keep you compliant with the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). Merchants that accept, process or store credit card information on their site, must have the scanning conducted.  Once passing the scan they will receive the official certification that they need to submit to their acquiring bank.  You can be sure that you will avoid penalties and heavy fines, if you are conducting these scans and staying compliant.

It has been proven that merchants who are pci compliant see online orders increase. Why? Because shoppers are more confident in using their credit cards online when they know that the sites they are shopping on are more protected from the risk of identity theft.

Some areas that are tested during a vulnerability assessment are firewalls, server vulnerabilities, virtual private networking (VPN), email configuration, remote access services, web site analysis, modems, and more.

So if you own an online business, don’t take any risks.  Keep your site compliant and safe from identity thieves for the protection of your business and your customers. Start vulnerability assessments now.

PCI DSS Fines

Ok, so we all know about the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) by now. But some of you may be wondering what the PCI DSS fines are if you do not become compliant. The fines can be pretty steep as I will explain below, but not only will you risk huge fines if you aren’t compliant, you are putting your security system and customer information at risk.

All businesses who store, transmit or process credit card data are required to follow the PCI DSS, and should have become PCI compliant by the end of 2007. If you are one of these businesses and are not yet compliant, you are constantly at risk of losing sensitive cardholder data, which will most likely result in PCI DSS fines, legal action and bad publicity. Organizations that fail to comply face fines of up to $500,000 if the data is lost or stolen and risk not being allowed to handle cardholder data.

High-status cases concerning big corporations have hit the headlines in the last couple of years. The Payment Card Industry has threatened huge fines against some larger merchants of up to $25,000 per month until compliance is obtained. In the high-profile case of TJX (owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Home Goods and A.J. Wright retail chains), the company reported spending $202 million because of the PCI violation that compromised the cardholder account information of as many as 40 million customers. The money is being spent to handle more 20 lawsuits brought against it by banks and consumers in the U.S. and Canada and to pay settlements with credit-card associations.

So don’t risk it. If you are not yet PCI compliant get there now. It is not as hard as it may seem, and well worth the time and money you put into it. If you don’t want to risk those pesky PCI DSS fines, you know what to do!

Are the Websites you Shop on PCI Certified?

You may have heard a lot about PCI compliance, and maybe you have taken all the steps you need to ensure that your business is PCI certified. But, I have a question for you? Are the websites you are shopping on PCI certified? This is something that is important to you as an online shopper, because you want to make sure that your personal information, such as account numbers, etc. is safe and secure. One way that you can be sure, is if the website you are shopping on is PCI certified.

Just to review, what it means to PCI certified is that the website is complying with all the requirements of the PCI DSS (which stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards). These requirements include things such as building and maintaining a secure network, protecting cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining an information security policy. Also, the website should be carrying out quarterly or daily PCI vulnerability scans. These scans will scan the website on a quarterly or daily basis in order to make sure that there are no threats or vulnerabilities on the website that would cause customer information to become stolen by hackers and online thieves.

You may be wondering how you can tell if a website that you shop on is PCI certified. The easiest way to tell is by looking for trust seals posted on the website. Trust seals are small images, that when clicked on, will confirm that the website has been verified and has conducted PCI scans. It is important to look for trust seals when shopping online, so that you aren’t putting your personal information in on a site that is not safe from online theft.

So when you shop online, be careful. Do your homework and look for those trust seals that are up to date. You want to be sure that the site you are shopping on is verified by a third party, and is following PCI compliance. Don’t let your personal information fall into the hands of the wrong person. Make sure that you are shopping on websites that are PCI certified.

Vulnerability Assessments?

You may have heard the term “vulnerability assessment, but aren’t quite sure what it means. You are not alone. I ran into this term a few times in my research and wasn’t quite sure what to think, so I decided to find out what exactly a vulnerability assessment is, and how it relates to PCI compliance.

These days, the risk of threats on the internet has become increasingly worrisome. The rising cleverness of intruder attacks using vulnerabilities found in online networks and applications has made it crucial for businesses to assess their network on a regular basis. This is where a vulnerability assessment comes in. A vulnerability assessment works hand in hand with PCI scanning to accurately scan web applications, databases, networks, operating systems and other software to find threats and assess the risk to the business. In a nutshell, running these PCI scans (sometimes referred to as vulnerability scans) help to reveal any areas in your network that are weak or prone to attack. Then you will be able to make any changes needed to your network to ensure that your business and customers are safe.

As with anything, it is important to realize that using vulnerability scanning alone, is not entirely fail-safe. As a business, you can combine the use of vulnerability scanning along with other means of website protection to ensure the security of your business and customers. Also, you should be aware, that not all vulnerability or PCI scanners are the same, so you really should do some research and make sure that you are using an approved scanning vendor (aka ASV), that will do the best job for you.

A company that I have found to be very helpful in all my research is Trust Guard. They offer a lot of information on a vulnerability assessment and vulnerability scanning. Check it out, and ensure that your business is protected.

The PCI Security Standards Council

I have been talking about the PCI Security Standards a lot in my posts. I have gone into a lot of detail about what the PCI Security Standards are, but I thought it might be helpful to let you know where they come from. In doing all my research one of my main sources has been the PCI Security Standards Council’s website (found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/). They are kind of the main resource and enforcer of PCI compliance and PCI scanning. I thought it might be helpful to everyone to let you know a great place to find out more information about the PCI Security Standards.

The PCI Security Standards Council’s goal is to improve security for payment card accounts by bringing more education and awareness of the PCI Security Standards to merchants and businesses around the world. The PCI Security Standards Council was founded by the five major credit card companies American Express, Discover, JCB International, MasterCard, and Visa.

To give you some idea of how the PCI Security Standards Council runs on a daily basis, I have included some information about the different areas of the council. The PCI Security Standards Council is headed by a policy-setting Executive Committee, consisting of representatives from the five founding payment brands. Operational decisions are made by a Management Committee, as well as from the payment brands. An Advisory Board, drawn from participating organizations, offers input to the organization and feedback on the progress of the PCI Data Security Standards. A Marketing Working Group, Technical Working Group, and a Legal Committee, whose participants are drawn from the payment brands, deal with their respective activities.

So if you are ready to make your business PCI compliant, reading about the PCI Security Standards Council is a great place to start. You can find a lot of great useful resources and information on their site to help you know what you need to do.

PCI Security Standard

My last few posts have all dealt with PCI, so I hope that you are all not getting bored just yet. It’s just that it is so important, and so I am trying to pass on the information as I find it. The topic I want to discuss in this post is the PCI Security Standard. This may also be referred to as the PCI Data Security Standard or PCI DSS. The PCI Security Standard is the means by which merchants can protect cardholder information. It tackles security technology controls and the processes for protecting cardholder data. As I have mentioned in previous posts, if your business accepts even one card for payment, you must comply with the PCI Security Standard.

The PCI Security Standard is structured by six goals which include 12 requirements. These requirements were listed in one of my previous posts, so I won’t go into a lot of detail about them, other than to mention that these requirements change just a bit depending on your merchant level. The table below offers a definition of the four merchant levels, in case you aren’t sure which level you are, and also describes some of the differences in these PCI Security Standard requirements.

Merchant Levels	Merchant Definitions/Transactions	Onsite Review	Self Assessment	Security Scan
Level 1	More than 6 million	Required	Not required	Required quarterly
Level 2	150K-6 million	Not required	Required annually	Required quarterly
Level 3	20K-150K	Not required	Required annually	Required quarterly
Level 4	Less than 20K	Not required	Required annually	Required quarterly

The PCI Security Standards Council is made up of the five major credit card companies. Their website can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org. This is a really great resource for any questions you might have. So, don’t wait any longer to get your site PCI compliant.  Check it out and learn more about the PCI Security Standard to have a compliant and trustworthy business.

The Importance of PCI Scanning

Lately I have been doing a lot of research into PCI scanning and PCI compliance. It can be quite a confusing subject with a lot of information that seems overwhelming. I would like to share with you just same basics that I have found about PCI scanning so you might have some of your own questions answered.

You are required to follow PCI compliance if your business or website is processing, receiving or storing credit card information in any form. PCI Scanning comes in as part of this compliance. PCI scanning is when an approved scanning vendor scans IP addresses that the public has access to that have to do with your website or the transaction process.

The type of PCI scanning and whether or not you need it depends on which merchant level you belong in. There are four different merchant levels, and basically, only one of these levels gives you the option to have PCI scanning, and even then there are additional things you need to look at.

So what it basically comes down to is that PCI scanning is important. Whether it is required of you or not, it is definitely a good idea. The best way that you can gain more customer trust is by being PCI compliant.

One company that I found to be efficient and affordable is Trust Guard. They offer quarterly and daily PCI scanning and loads of information about becoming PCI compliant. The best thing about Trust Guard is that they also offer trust seals so that your customers will know that you have completed the PCI scanning and are up to date. When a customer is sure that they can trust your site with their personal information, they will be sure to come back time and again. This will result in more sales for you.

The topic of PCI scanning can be a bit complicated, but hopefully this article has helped answer a few questions. PCI scanning is important and is definitely worth looking into if you own or are planning on owning a website that processes credit cards.

Website Security Tests Protect Against Application Vulnerabilities

clipped from www.zimbio.com More than four out of every five (85 percent) U.S. businesses have experienced a data breach, according to a recent study by Colchester, Conn.-based law firm Scott + Scott, putting millions of consumers’ Social Security numbers and other sensitive information in the hands of criminals.�Website owners are vulnerable to unwanted intrusions by malicious hackers and other harmful codes. If a website’s server and applications are not protected from security vulnerabilities, identities, credit card information, and billions of dollars are at risk. Many companies rely on a firewall to protect their websites from security breaches. Unfortunately, firewalls do not provide enough protection.�Hackers are constantly looking for new ways to compromise systems through unguarded, and sometimes not so obvious, side doors. A web application scanner should crawl the entire website, analyze in-depth each & every file, and display the entire website structure.

McAfee Secure Protects Consumers

If you were ever wondering how third party verification like McAfee Secure will protect you as you shop online, you may find some answers here.

clipped from hubpages.com McAfee Secure Protects Consumers Some things that Mcafee Secure protects you from are identity theft and credit card fraud. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. McAfee protects against this by running a daily scan of the website and informing them of any vulnerabilities that may be there. McAfee Secure also protects websites against credit card fraud. The daily scanning is also known as PCI scanning which stands for Payment Card Industry scanning. This means that the website has passed the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI DSS compliance test. This includes things such as an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate which insures encryption and security of your online account information. You can be sure that no one will be able to get your credit card information. By webverification

McAfee Secure for Website Owners and Consumers

McAfee Secure, which was previously known as Hackersafe, provides a number of services for website owners. Some of these services include web applications and daily scanning, so that website owners have the latest information about their vulnerability. Not only do third party verification programs help website owners, but they also help consumers. When a customer sees the McAfee Secure trust seal verifying the site, they will know that their personal information is safe and this builds trust. Which means more business for the website owner.

Some of the ways that McAfee Secure protects your website are as follows:

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Vulnerability Management Portal and Alert System – McAfee’s vulnerability provides secure access to weaknesses and information from any location on how to fix these problems. The security tools will enable you to launch scans, examine vulnerability details, create network device groups, track trends, configure alerts, and generate customized report.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Payment Card Industry (PCI) Scanning – High tech scanning technology which performs daily scans of your website to make sure you are safe from vulnerabilities.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>Data Security – McAfee is third-party certified to the standards set by Visa International. You can display this security standard on your site with the McAfee Secure trust seal.

<!–[if !supportLists]–>· <!–[endif]–>.Customer Support – Included is McAfee’s unlimited online, email, or telephone customer support from highly certified security professionals. They promise to provide quick and accurate assistance no matter your level of expertise.

So if you are a website owner, you should make sure that your site is protected by a third party verifier such as McAfee Secure. As an online shopper, know that it is important to look for trust seals such as McAfee Secure. Then you will know that your personal information and purchases are protected.