MasterCard Announces Payment Data Protection Program

The PDP program has several elements that describe how merchants should store transaction data, keep it secure, and share information with vendors and other partners involved in processing payment transactions. The program also will delve into customer relationship management (CRM) considerations and clarify the guidelines that are already in place to safeguard account information. The campaign is designed to bring those involved in payment card transactions together to fight fraud. This initiative will include education materials, best practices and other information to promote industry collaboration. The following are security measures that all merchants should be aware of: Install and maintain a firewall to protect data. Avoid vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords. Protect stored cardholder data. Never store magnetic stripe or CVC 2 (cardholder verification code 2) data Encrypt cardholder data when transferred over networks. Utilize anti-virus software or programs. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications. Restrict access to data. Assign a unique username and password to each person with computer access. Restrict physical access to cardholder data. Regularly test and monitor security systems and processes. In addition to this new initiative, MasterCard already has other fraud prevention programs in place, including MasterCard SecureCode and the MasterCard Site Data Protection (SDP) programs. MasterCard SecureCode is a program designed to provide acquiring banks and online retailers the added security of having issuing banks authenticate their individual cardholders and qualify their online transactions. MasterCard SDP is a set of global e-commerce and financial security services designed to help protect the Web sites of its member financial institutions, online merchants and other payment processors.