14 September 2005
Credit cards are still not as safe as they should be because retailers have been slow to adopt new technology, industry experts have warned.
A new survey from Logic Group and the Retail Bulletin says that payment card industry (PCI) data security standards mandated by Visa and MasterCard have still not been adopted by most merchants two months after the June deadline.
The new standards aim to protect customers' credit details from fraud, with retailers set to face substantial fines and risk being permanently barred from card acceptance programmes if they lose credit card details they lose.
A massive 73 per cent have done nothing to comply with the legislation, with 55 per cent not even aware of the data security process.
Mark McMurtrie, Logic Group marketing director, said: "The survey findings are truly worrying.
"With such significant repercussions for those merchants failing to achieve compliance, it's amazing that the PCI standard has had such a low profile up until now.
"Do we have to wait for another high profile UK fraud case where thousands of card numbers are stolen and personal data is compromised before the gravity of the situation is finally realised?"
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