8 Steps Toward Improving M-Commerce Security

With the ever-evolving use of technology for payment processing, it's a question as to whether the Payment Card Industry (PCI) will be able to keep up with the also ever-evolving security threats associated with m-commerce, particularly mobile transactions.

According to information security expert John W. Adams, PCI is a minimum baseline for a comprehensive security program. He adds that retailers must perform a thorough risk assessment of their environment, with a particular focus on new or unproven technologies such as m-commerce transactions, to identify all areas where a failure could occur.

Following are eight steps retailers can take to help ensure the security of both customer and purchase data as retailers begin to offer mobile transaction capabilities:

>> Establish credibility of vendor(s) and actionable Service Level Agreement (SLA)

>> Validate compliance with PCI requirements and understand overall security features, capabilities and limitations

>> Evaluate technology thoroughly in a fully functional test environment

>> Ensure the capability for integration with existing technologies and confirm that integration will not decrease security elsewhere

>> Demand thorough documentation including architectural and data flow diagrams, installation and configuration manual, system administration manual, system requirements and dependencies, and an end-user manual

>> Implement adequate segmentation to limit exposure in the event of breach

>> System auditing and monitoring of user and transaction activity

>> Timely identification, evaluation and implementation of patches

To read the complete article: Security and Compliance in the Age of Mobile Commerce