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What's bugging e-tail security?

2 Jun 2008

The drive for compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard must begin in the source code, advises Jack Danahy, founder and chief technology officer of Ounce Labs. If there's one thing the slew of high-profile data security breaches have taught everyone, it's this: Data security starts with software security.

Software security breaches add up in recent headlines alone: US$13 million in losses; 45.6 million credit cards stolen; recovery costs at $256 million dollars and mounting; and companies driven into bankruptcy or out of business. Financially motivated targeted attacks are becoming more prevalent, and new vulnerabilities continue to be reported, according to industry research firm Gartner (NYSE: IT). Eighty percent of companies will suffer an application security incident by 2010, with the cost of a sensitive data break increasing 20 percent per year through 2009, Gartner estimates.

The retail industry has taken notice. Security continues to be top of mind, and retailers are investing heavily in improved security processes to monitor and manage vulnerabilities and control access. Ironically, with all this emphasis on security, Gartner has found little or no correlation between enterprises that spend the most on security and enterprises that are the most secure.

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