Security Standards That Every Retailer Needs to Know About

By Nicole Leinbach Reyhle

 

The complexity behind the payment ecosystem is vast. Yet, to the customers, how payments are processed must appear fast, simple and secure.

Recognizing this reality as a merchant is no easy task. After all, one compliance standard doesn’t cover all the vulnerabilities that retailers face. Thus, it’s critical for merchants to understand compromises that may risk their customer and company data alike.

To help, establishing an action plan to mitigate these risks is essential. Among the first steps to do this? Understanding what PCI DSS are and how the significantly impact retail security.

Originally created by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express in 2004, the PCI DSS has evolved to help online sellers avoid data breaches thorough specific systems and processes. The most recent version, PCI DSS 3.1, sets the standard for all companies to follow – regardless of revenue and credit card transaction volumes.

But PCI DSS alone cannot protect merchants from the potential risks they embrace when processing transactions. What can help, however, is EMV 3-D Secure.

With EMV 3DS set to take launch in 2019, retailers need to understand the value it can bring to their businesses. Not only will this help tostrengthen and facilitate online payment authentication, but it will also improve the user experience.

 

As the payment experts at CA Technologies, A Broadcom Company explain, there are five key benefits to EMV 3-D Secure. They include:

1. Support authentication based on data elements shared through the protocol with a focus on a frictionless experience for cardholders.
2. Make the message interface and authentication amenable to mobile platforms, including multi-channel and multi-device.
3. Make the technology future proof with support for digital wallets and other forms of digital payments.
4. Align to country specific and regulatory requirements.
5. Move from static authentication to dynamic authentication when necessary.

 

Keeping these factors in mind, one of the main attributes of EMV 3-D Secure is that it will provide additional data to enhance risk-based authentication of cardholder and device behavior. This new data helps both the merchant and the issuer make informed, real-time decisions as to whether or not to complete a transaction in a card-not-present scenario.

 

Leading this effort is CA Payment Security Suite, which helps bring clarity to the entire decision process. Using sophisticated behavioral modeling techniques to transparently assess risk in real-time, CA Payment Security Suite evaluates data based on device type, geolocation, user behavior, historical fraud data and transaction insight to help identify true fraud from genuine purchases.

 

Having this clarity is essential for combatting risk in retail. As an added bonus, putting the right authentication systems can also improve efficiency and revenue – creating a domino effect of positive behavior for merchants. Five points to consider here:

1. Combat eCommerce fraud
2. Increase revenue in their commerce business
3. Reduce operational costs
4. Improve overall online shopping experiences
5. Seamlessly do all of the above with confidence

Conclusion

Welcoming technology into your merchant standards that embraces the reality of risk and compromise to retailers is a must. That said, so is creating frictionless customer experiences. If your retail business is not meeting these demands, your retail business is losing opportunity while welcoming threats – plain and simple.

That’s where payment experts like CA Technologies, A Broadcom Company, come in. By working with a trusted partner, merchants can not only identify and manage risks, but also optimize the customer experience during checkout and all payment touchpoints. To learn more about how CA Technologies, a Broadcom Company, can benefit your business – and your customers data – click here.

 

This article is sponsored by CA Technologies, A Broadcom Company. All opinions are my own.