133-542: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard ( PCI DSS ) is an information security standard used to handle credit cards from major card brands . The standard is administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council , and its use is mandated by the card brands. It was created to better control cardholder data and reduce credit card fraud . Validation of compliance is performed annually or quarterly with
266-544: A publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange . Visa Inc. announced the plan to acquire Visa Europe on November 2, 2015, creating a single global company. On April 21, 2016, the agreement was amended in response to the feedback of European Commission . The acquisition of Visa Europe was completed on June 21, 2016. On January 13, 2020, Plaid announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Visa for $ 5.3 billion. The deal
399-516: A 50% market share of total card payments. On September 18, 1958, Bank of America (BofA) officially launched its BankAmericard credit card program in Fresno, California . In the weeks leading up to the launch of BankAmericard, BofA had saturated Fresno mailboxes with an initial mass mailing (or "drop", as they came to be called) of 65,000 unsolicited credit cards. BankAmericard was the brainchild of BofA's in-house product development think tank ,
532-463: A PCI DSS-compliant manner. Acquiring banks must comply with PCI DSS and have their compliance validated with an audit . In a security breach, any compromised entity which was not PCI DSS-compliant at the time of the breach may be subject to additional penalties (such as fines) from card brands or acquiring banks. Compliance with PCI DSS is not required by federal law in the United States , but
665-421: A balance between productivity, cost, effectiveness of the countermeasure, and the value of the informational asset being protected. Furthermore, these processes have limitations as security breaches are generally rare and emerge in a specific context which may not be easily duplicated. Thus, any process and countermeasure should itself be evaluated for vulnerabilities. It is not possible to identify all risks, nor
798-539: A bank's loan department) had been too earnest and trusting in his belief in the basic goodness of the bank's customers, and he resigned in December 1959. Twenty-two percent of accounts were delinquent, not the 4% expected, and police departments around the state were confronted by numerous incidents of the brand new crime of credit card fraud . Both politicians and journalists joined the general uproar against Bank of America and its newfangled credit card, especially when it
931-567: A bright future lay ahead for BankAmericard — outside Bank of America. In June 1970, Bank of America gave up control of the BankAmericard program. The various BankAmericard issuer banks took control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), an independent Delaware corporation which would be in charge of managing, promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United States. In other words, BankAmericard
1064-483: A business's customers or finances or new product line fall into the hands of a competitor or hacker , a business and its customers could suffer widespread, irreparable financial loss, as well as damage to the company's reputation. From a business perspective, information security must be balanced against cost; the Gordon-Loeb Model provides a mathematical economic approach for addressing this concern. For
1197-420: A claim of identity. When John Doe goes into a bank to make a withdrawal, he tells the bank teller he is John Doe, a claim of identity. The bank teller asks to see a photo ID, so he hands the teller his driver's license . The bank teller checks the license to make sure it has John Doe printed on it and compares the photograph on the license against the person claiming to be John Doe. If the photo and name match
1330-403: A claim of who they are. However, their claim may or may not be true. Before John Doe can be granted access to protected information it will be necessary to verify that the person claiming to be John Doe really is John Doe. Typically the claim is in the form of a username. By entering that username you are claiming "I am the person the username belongs to". Authentication is the act of verifying
1463-666: A court is scheduled to approve or deny the agreement on November 7, 2019. In June 2016, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart threatened to stop accepting Visa cards in Canada. Visa objected saying that consumers should not be dragged into a dispute between the companies. In January 2017, Walmart Canada and Visa reached a deal to allow the continued acceptance of Visa. In March 2019, U.S. retailer Kroger announced that its 250-strong Smith's chain would stop accepting Visa credit cards as of April 3, 2019, due to
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#17327718681111596-508: A federal judge entered an order granting preliminary approval to a proposed settlement to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2005 by merchants and trade associations against Mastercard and Visa. The suit was filed due to alleged price-fixing practices employed by Mastercard and Visa. About one-quarter of the named class plaintiffs have decided to opt "out of the settlement". Opponents object to provisions that would bar future lawsuits and even prevent merchants from opting out of significant portions of
1729-502: A flood of incoming messages to the target system, essentially forcing it to shut down. In the realm of information security, availability can often be viewed as one of the most important parts of a successful information security program. Ultimately end-users need to be able to perform job functions; by ensuring availability an organization is able to perform to the standards that an organization's stakeholders expect. This can involve topics such as proxy configurations, outside web access,
1862-448: A lawsuit seeking to block the acquisition, arguing that Visa is a monopolist trying to eliminate a competitive threat by purchasing Plaid. Visa said it disagrees with the lawsuit and "intends to defend the transaction vigorously." On January 12, 2021, Visa and Plaid announced they had abandoned the deal. On February 3, 2021, Visa announced a partnership with First Boulevard, a neobank promoting cryptocurrency, which has been touted as
1995-699: A manager at the National Bank of Commerce (later Rainier Bancorp ), Dee Hock , was asked to supervise that bank's launch of its own licensed version of BankAmericard in the Pacific Northwest market. Although Bank of America had cultivated the public image that BankAmericard's troubled startup issues were now safely in the past, Hock realized that the BankAmericard licensee program itself was in terrible disarray because it had developed and grown very rapidly in an ad hoc fashion. For example, "interchange" transaction issues between banks were becoming
2128-638: A means of building generational wealth for Black Americans. The partnership would allow their users to buy, sell, hold, and trade digital assets through Anchorage Digital . On March 29, 2021, Visa announced the acceptance of stablecoin USDC to settle transactions on its network. Registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) entity , the Visa Foundation was created with the mission of supporting inclusive economies. In particular, economies in which individuals, businesses and communities can thrive with
2261-421: A method suited to the volume of transactions: The major card brands had five different security programs: The intentions of each were roughly similar: to create an additional level of protection for card issuers by ensuring that merchants meet minimum levels of security when they store, process, and transmit cardholder data. To address interoperability problems among the existing standards, the combined effort by
2394-566: A network of banks backing the BankAmericard system across the United States. The "drops" of unsolicited credit cards continued unabated, thanks to BofA and its licensees and competitors until they were outlawed in 1970, but not before over 100 million credit cards had been distributed into the American population. During the late 1960s, BofA also licensed the BankAmericard program to banks in several other countries, which began issuing cards with localized brand names. For example: In 1968,
2527-420: A new competitor, Master Charge (now Mastercard ), which had been created by an alliance of several regional bankcard associations to compete against BankAmericard. BofA itself (like all other U.S. banks at the time) could not expand directly into other states due to federal restrictions not repealed until 1994 . Over the following 11 years, various banks licensed the card system from Bank of America, thus forming
2660-505: A payment in exchange for returning the information or property back to its owner, as with ransomware . One of the most functional precautions against these attacks is to conduct periodical user awareness. Governments , military , corporations , financial institutions , hospitals , non-profit organisations, and private businesses amass a great deal of confidential information about their employees, customers, products, research, and financial status. Should confidential information about
2793-504: A result of the allegedly-coordinated efforts of Albert Gonzalez and two unnamed Russian hackers. Assessments examine the compliance of merchants and service providers with the PCI DSS at a specific point in time, frequently using sampling to allow compliance to be demonstrated with representative systems and processes. It is the responsibility of the merchant and service provider to achieve, demonstrate, and maintain compliance throughout
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#17327718681112926-483: A retailer and many of which are subject to interpretation . The PCI DSS may compel businesses pay more attention to IT security, even if minimum standards are not enough to eradicate security problems. Bruce Schneier spoke in favor of the standard: Regulation—SOX, HIPAA , GLBA, the credit-card industry's PCI, the various disclosure laws, the European Data Protection Act, whatever—has been
3059-469: A separate company, owned by its member banks who will also have a minority stake in Visa Inc. In total, more than 35 investment banks participated in the deal in several capacities, most notably as underwriters. On October 3, 2007, Visa completed its corporate restructuring with the formation of Visa Inc. The new company was the first step towards Visa's IPO. The second step came on November 9, 2007, when
3192-419: A tool for security professionals to examine security from a systems perspective, creating an environment where security can be managed holistically, allowing actual risks to be addressed. The type of information security classification labels selected and used will depend on the nature of the organization, with examples being: All employees in the organization, as well as business partners, must be trained on
3325-510: A transaction. Nevada incorporated the standard into state law two years later, requiring compliance by merchants doing business in that state with the current PCI DSS and shielding compliant entities from liability. The Nevada law also allows merchants to avoid liability by other approved security standards. In 2010, Washington also incorporated the standard into state law. Unlike Nevada's law, entities are not required to be PCI DSS-compliant; however, compliant entities are shielded from liability in
3458-506: A variety of problems with their licensing programs, and they hired Hock as a consultant to help them restructure their relationship with BofA as he had done for the domestic licensees. As a result, in 1974, the International Bankcard Company (IBANCO), a multinational member corporation, was founded in order to manage the international BankAmericard program. In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that bringing
3591-402: A very serious problem, which had not been seen before when Bank of America was the sole issuer of BankAmericards. Hock suggested to other licensees that they form a committee to investigate and analyze the various problems with the licensee program; they promptly made him the chair of that committee. After lengthy negotiations, the committee led by Hock was able to persuade Bank of America that
3724-418: A website associated with the suit, Visa and MasterCard settled the plaintiffs' claims in 2003 for a total of $ 3.05 billion. Visa's share of this settlement is reported to have been the larger. In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Visa over rules prohibiting its issuing banks from doing business with American Express and Discover . The Department of Justice won its case at trial in 2001 and
3857-558: Is accessed, processed, stored, transferred, and destroyed. While paper-based business operations are still prevalent, requiring their own set of information security practices, enterprise digital initiatives are increasingly being emphasized, with information assurance now typically being dealt with by information technology (IT) security specialists. These specialists apply information security to technology (most often some form of computer system). IT security specialists are almost always found in any major enterprise/establishment due to
3990-558: Is an individual certified by the PCI Security Standards Council to validate another entity's PCI DSS compliance. QSAs must be employed and sponsored by a QSA Company, which also must be certified by the PCI Security Standards Council. An Internal Security Assessor (ISA) is an individual who has earned a certificate from the PCI Security Standards Council for their sponsoring organization, and can conduct PCI self-assessments for their organization. The ISA program
4123-453: Is available, the analysis may use quantitative analysis. Research has shown that the most vulnerable point in most information systems is the human user, operator, designer, or other human. The ISO/IEC 27002:2005 Code of practice for information security management recommends the following be examined during a risk assessment: In broad terms, the risk management process consists of: For any given risk, management can choose to accept
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4256-451: Is based on their annual number of transactions and how the transactions are processed. An acquirer or payment brand may manually place an organization into a reporting level at its discretion. Merchant levels are: Each card issuer maintains a table of compliance levels and a table for service providers. Compliance validation involves the evaluation and confirmation that the security controls and procedures have been implemented according to
4389-432: Is it possible to eliminate all risk. The remaining risk is called "residual risk". A risk assessment is carried out by a team of people who have knowledge of specific areas of the business. Membership of the team may vary over time as different parts of the business are assessed. The assessment may use a subjective qualitative analysis based on informed opinion, or where reliable dollar figures and historical information
4522-446: Is largely achieved through a structured risk management process. To standardize this discipline, academics and professionals collaborate to offer guidance, policies, and industry standards on passwords , antivirus software , firewalls , encryption software , legal liability , security awareness and training, and so forth. This standardization may be further driven by a wide variety of laws and regulations that affect how data
4655-654: Is no fraud loss at all, simply because the fines are "profitable to them," the McCombs say. Michael Jones, CIO of Michaels , testified before a U.S. Congressional subcommittee about the PCI DSS: [The PCI DSS requirements] are very expensive to implement, confusing to comply with, and ultimately subjective, both in their interpretation and in their enforcement. It is often stated that there are only twelve "Requirements" for PCI compliance. In fact there are over 220 sub-requirements; some of which can place an incredible burden on
4788-551: Is not mandatory for all entities. Visa and Mastercard require merchants and service providers to be validated according to the PCI DSS; Visa also offers a Technology Innovation Program (TIP), an alternative program which allows qualified merchants to discontinue the annual PCI DSS validation assessment. Merchants are eligible if they take alternative precautions against fraud, such as the use of EMV or point-to-point encryption . Issuing banks are not required to undergo PCI DSS validation, although they must secure sensitive data in
4921-401: Is sufficient to address rapidly changing technology and business requirements, with recommendations to consider expanding on the intersections between availability and confidentiality, as well as the relationship between security and privacy. Other principles such as "accountability" have sometimes been proposed; it has been pointed out that issues such as non-repudiation do not fit well within
5054-436: Is the attempt to act as someone else usually to obtain that person's personal information or to take advantage of their access to vital information through social engineering . Sabotage usually consists of the destruction of an organization's website in an attempt to cause loss of confidence on the part of its customers. Information extortion consists of theft of a company's property or information as an attempt to receive
5187-412: Is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data or the unlawful use, disclosure , disruption, deletion, corruption, modification, inspection, recording, or devaluation of information. It also involves actions intended to reduce
5320-469: Is the world's second-largest card payment organization (debit and credit cards combined), after being surpassed by China UnionPay in 2015, based on annual value of card payments transacted and number of issued cards. However, because UnionPay's size is based primarily on the size of its domestic market in China , Visa is still considered the dominant bankcard company in the rest of the world, where it commands
5453-476: The ARPANET project was formulated by Larry Roberts , which would later evolve into what is known as the internet . In 1973, important elements of ARPANET security were found by internet pioneer Robert Metcalfe to have many flaws such as the: "vulnerability of password structure and formats; lack of safety procedures for dial-up connections ; and nonexistent user identification and authorizations", aside from
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5586-611: The Caesar cipher c. 50 B.C., which was created in order to prevent his secret messages from being read should a message fall into the wrong hands. However, for the most part protection was achieved through the application of procedural handling controls. Sensitive information was marked up to indicate that it should be protected and transported by trusted persons, guarded and stored in a secure environment or strong box. As postal services expanded, governments created official organizations to intercept, decipher, read, and reseal letters (e.g.,
5719-699: The Cold War to complete more sophisticated tasks, in a communication process easier than mailing magnetic tapes back and forth by computer centers. As such, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), of the United States Department of Defense , started researching the feasibility of a networked system of communication to trade information within the United States Armed Forces . In 1968,
5852-467: The First World War , multi-tier classification systems were used to communicate information to and from various fronts, which encouraged greater use of code making and breaking sections in diplomatic and military headquarters. Encoding became more sophisticated between the wars as machines were employed to scramble and unscramble information. The establishment of computer security inaugurated
5985-751: The IT company that enables WikiLeaks to accept credit and debit card donations, announced that it would take legal action against Visa Europe. On December 8, the group Anonymous performed a DDoS attack on visa.com, bringing the site down. Although the Norway-based financial services company Teller AS, which Visa ordered to look into WikiLeaks and its fundraising body, the Sunshine Press, found no proof of any wrongdoing, Salon reported in January 2011 that Visa Europe "would continue blocking donations to
6118-594: The NIST 's Engineering Principles for Information Technology Security proposed 33 principles. In 1998, Donn Parker proposed an alternative model for the classic "CIA" triad that he called the six atomic elements of information . The elements are confidentiality , possession , integrity , authenticity , availability , and utility . The merits of the Parkerian Hexad are a subject of debate amongst security professionals. In 2011, The Open Group published
6251-582: The NIST Cybersecurity Framework . Information security threats come in many different forms. Some of the most common threats today are software attacks, theft of intellectual property, theft of identity, theft of equipment or information, sabotage, and information extortion. Viruses , worms , phishing attacks , and Trojan horses are a few common examples of software attacks. The theft of intellectual property has also been an extensive issue for many businesses. Identity theft
6384-421: The "CIA" triad to be provided effectively. In addition to the classic CIA triad of security goals, some organisations may want to include security goals like authenticity, accountability, non-repudiation, and reliability. In law, non-repudiation implies one's intention to fulfill their obligations to a contract. It also implies that one party of a transaction cannot deny having received a transaction, nor can
6517-457: The ATM fees. In 1996, a class of U.S. merchants, including Walmart , brought an antitrust lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard over their "Honor All Cards" policy, which forced merchants who accepted Visa and MasterCard branded credit cards to also accept their respective debit cards (such as the "Visa Check Card"). Over 4 million class members were represented by the plaintiffs. According to
6650-663: The American financial services industry, but no one could figure out how to do it. There were already charge cards like Diners Club (which had to be paid in full at the end of each billing cycle), and "by the mid-1950s, there had been at least a dozen attempts to create an all-purpose credit card." However, these prior attempts had been carried out by small banks which lacked the resources to make them work. Williams and his team studied these failures carefully and believed they could avoid replicating those banks' mistakes; they also studied existing revolving credit operations at Sears and Mobil Oil to learn why they were successful. Fresno
6783-668: The BankAmericard name and the VISA name on the same card), and the various Bank of America issued cards worldwide being phased out by the end of October 1979. In October 2007, Bank of America announced it was resurrecting the BankAmericard brand name as the "BankAmericard Rewards Visa". In March 2022, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Visa announced that it would suspend all business operations in Russia . Prior to October 3, 2007, Visa comprised four non-stock, separately incorporated companies that employed 6,000 people worldwide:
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#17327718681116916-821: The BankAmericard program, forming a cooperative with the other various BankAmericard issuer banks to take over its management. It was then renamed Visa in 1976. Nearly all Visa transactions worldwide are processed through the company's directly operated VisaNet at one of four secure data centers , located in Ashburn, Virginia and Highlands Ranch, Colorado in the United States; London, England ; and in Singapore . These facilities are heavily secured against natural disasters, crime, and terrorism; can operate independently of each other and from external utilities if necessary; and can handle up to 30,000 simultaneous transactions and up to 100 billion computations every second. Visa
7049-512: The Customer Services Research Group, and its leader, Joseph P. Williams . Williams convinced senior BofA executives in 1956 to let him pursue what became the world's first successful mass mailing of unsolicited credit cards (actual working cards, not mere applications) to a large population. Williams' pioneering accomplishment was that he brought about the successful implementation of the all-purpose credit card (in
7182-409: The PCI DSS. Validation occurs through an annual assessment, either by an external entity, or by self-assessment. A Report on Compliance (ROC) is conducted by a PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and is intended to provide independent validation of an entity's compliance with the PCI DSS standard. A completed ROC results in two documents: a ROC Reporting Template populated with detailed explanation of
7315-767: The PCI SSC in September 2006 as an administrative and governing entity which mandates the evolution and development of the PCI DSS. Independent private organizations can participate in PCI development after they register. Each participating organization joins a SIG (Special Interest Group) and contributes to activities mandated by the group. The following versions of the PCI DSS have been made available: The PCI DSS has twelve requirements for compliance, organized into six related groups known as control objectives: Each PCI DSS version has divided these six requirement groups differently, but
7448-651: The U.K.'s Secret Office, founded in 1653 ). In the mid-nineteenth century more complex classification systems were developed to allow governments to manage their information according to the degree of sensitivity. For example, the British Government codified this, to some extent, with the publication of the Official Secrets Act in 1889. Section 1 of the law concerned espionage and unlawful disclosures of information, while Section 2 dealt with breaches of official trust. A public interest defense
7581-493: The United States Justice Department announced its investigation with Visa to discover if the company is engaging in anticompetitive practices in the debit card market. The main question at hand is whether or not Visa is limiting merchants' ability to route debit card transactions over card networks that are often less expensive, focusing more so on online debit card transactions. The probe highlights
7714-469: The ability to access shared drives and the ability to send emails. Executives oftentimes do not understand the technical side of information security and look at availability as an easy fix, but this often requires collaboration from many different organizational teams, such as network operations, development operations, incident response, and policy/change management. A successful information security team involves many different key roles to mesh and align for
7847-453: The adverse impacts of such incidents. Protected information may take any form, e.g., electronic or physical, tangible (e.g., paperwork ), or intangible (e.g., knowledge ). Information security's primary focus is the balanced protection of data confidentiality , integrity , and availability (also known as the 'CIA' triad) while maintaining a focus on efficient policy implementation, all without hampering organization productivity . This
7980-471: The annual validation-and-assessment cycle across all systems and processes. A breakdown in merchant and service-provider compliance with the written standard may have been responsible for the breaches; Hannaford Brothers received its PCI DSS compliance validation one day after it had been made aware of a two-month-long compromise of its internal systems. Compliance validation is required only for level 1 to 3 merchants and may be optional for Level 4, depending on
8113-403: The asset). A vulnerability is a weakness that could be used to endanger or cause harm to an informational asset. A threat is anything (man-made or act of nature ) that has the potential to cause harm. The likelihood that a threat will use a vulnerability to cause harm creates a risk. When a threat does use a vulnerability to inflict harm, it has an impact. In the context of information security,
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#17327718681118246-635: The best stick the industry has found to beat companies over the head with. And it works. Regulation forces companies to take security more seriously, and sells more products and services. PCI Council general manager Bob Russo responded to objections by the National Retail Federation : [PCI is a structured] blend ... [of] specificity and high-level concepts [that allows] stakeholders the opportunity and flexibility to work with Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs) to determine appropriate security controls within their environment that meet
8379-478: The calculation—was introduced. By the early 1980s, many issuers introduced the concept of the annual fee as yet another revenue enhancer. On October 11, 2006, Visa announced that some of its businesses would be merged and become a publicly traded company , Visa Inc. Under the IPO restructuring, Visa Canada, Visa International, and Visa USA were merged into the new public company. Visa's Western Europe operation became
8512-528: The card brand and acquirer. According to Visa's compliance validation details for merchants, level-4 merchant compliance-validation requirements ("Merchants processing less than 20,000 Visa e-commerce transactions annually and all other merchants processing up to 1 million Visa transactions annually") are set by the acquirer . Over 80 percent of payment-card compromises between 2005 and 2007 affected level-4 merchants, who handled 32 percent of all such transactions. Information security Information security
8645-456: The cards' high 'swipe' fees. Kroger's California-based Foods Co stores stopped accepting Visa cards in August 2018. Mike Schlotman, Kroger's executive vice president/chief financial officer, said Visa had been "misusing its position and charging retailers excessive fees for a long time." In response, Visa issued a statement saying it was "unfair and disappointing that Kroger is putting shoppers in
8778-645: The claim that the signature necessarily proves authenticity and integrity. As such, the sender may repudiate the message (because authenticity and integrity are pre-requisites for non-repudiation). In 1992 and revised in 2002, the OECD 's Guidelines for the Security of Information Systems and Networks proposed the nine generally accepted principles: awareness , responsibility, response, ethics, democracy, risk assessment, security design and implementation, security management, and reassessment. Building upon those, in 2004
8911-516: The classification schema and understand the required security controls and handling procedures for each classification. The classification of a particular information asset that has been assigned should be reviewed periodically to ensure the classification is still appropriate for the information and to ensure the security controls required by the classification are in place and are followed in their right procedures. Access to protected information must be restricted to people who are authorized to access
9044-639: The common goals of ensuring the security and reliability of information systems . The "CIA triad" of c onfidentiality, i ntegrity, and a vailability is at the heart of information security. The concept was introduced in the Anderson Report in 1972 and later repeated in The Protection of Information in Computer Systems . The abbreviation was coined by Steve Lipner around 1986. Debate continues about whether or not this triad
9177-410: The control mechanisms need to be. The foundation on which access control mechanisms are built start with identification and authentication . Access control is generally considered in three steps: identification, authentication , and authorization . Identification is an assertion of who someone is or what something is. If a person makes the statement "Hello, my name is John Doe " they are making
9310-460: The core, surrounded by people, network security, host-based security, and application security layers. The strategy emphasizes that security involves not just technology, but also people and processes working together, with real-time monitoring and response being crucial components. An important aspect of information security and risk management is recognizing the value of information and defining appropriate procedures and protection requirements for
9443-529: The credit card industry, found that Visa's global network (known as VisaNet ) processed 100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of US$ 6.8 trillion. Visa was founded in 1958 by Bank of America (BofA) as the BankAmericard credit card program. In response to competitor Master Charge (now Mastercard ), BofA began to license the BankAmericard program to other financial institutions in 1966. By 1970, BofA gave up direct control of
9576-639: The different classification labels, define the criteria for information to be assigned a particular label, and list the required security controls for each classification. Some factors that influence which classification information should be assigned include how much value that information has to the organization, how old the information is and whether or not the information has become obsolete. Laws and other regulatory requirements are also important considerations when classifying information. The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and its Business Model for Information Security also serves as
9709-591: The early 1980s enabled different types of computers to communicate. These computers quickly became interconnected through the internet . The rapid growth and widespread use of electronic data processing and electronic business conducted through the internet, along with numerous occurrences of international terrorism , fueled the need for better methods of protecting the computers and the information they store, process, and transmit. The academic disciplines of computer security and information assurance emerged along with numerous professional organizations, all sharing
9842-464: The entity type and payment model used. Each SAQ question has a yes-or-no answer, and any "no" response requires the entity to indicate its future implementation. As with ROCs, an attestation of compliance (AOC) based on the SAQ is also completed. The PCI Security Standards Council maintains a program to certify companies and individuals to perform assessment activities. A Qualified Security Assessor (QSA)
9975-556: The event of a data breach. Visa and Mastercard impose fines for non-compliance. Stephen and Theodora "Cissy" McComb, owners of Cisero's Ristorante and Nightclub in Park City, Utah , were fined for a breach for which two forensics firms could not find evidence: The McCombs assert that the PCI system is less a system for securing customer card data than a system for raking in profits for the card companies via fines and penalties. Visa and MasterCard impose fines on merchants even when there
10108-626: The history of information security. The need for such appeared during World War II . The volume of information shared by the Allied countries during the Second World War necessitated formal alignment of classification systems and procedural controls. An arcane range of markings evolved to indicate who could handle documents (usually officers rather than enlisted troops) and where they should be stored as increasingly complex safes and storage facilities were developed. The Enigma Machine , which
10241-502: The impact is a loss of availability, integrity, and confidentiality, and possibly other losses (lost income, loss of life, loss of real property). The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) Review Manual 2006 defines risk management as "the process of identifying vulnerabilities and threats to the information resources used by an organization in achieving business objectives, and deciding what countermeasures , if any, to take in reducing risk to an acceptable level, based on
10374-558: The incorrect individuals. In IT security, data integrity means maintaining and assuring the accuracy and completeness of data over its entire lifecycle. This means that data cannot be modified in an unauthorized or undetected manner. This is not the same thing as referential integrity in databases , although it can be viewed as a special case of consistency as understood in the classic ACID model of transaction processing . Information security systems typically incorporate controls to ensure their own integrity, in particular protecting
10507-415: The individual, information security has a significant effect on privacy , which is viewed very differently in various cultures . Since the early days of communication, diplomats and military commanders understood that it was necessary to provide some mechanism to protect the confidentiality of correspondence and to have some means of detecting tampering . Julius Caesar is credited with the invention of
10640-500: The information must be available when it is needed. This means the computing systems used to store and process the information, the security controls used to protect it, and the communication channels used to access it must be functioning correctly. High availability systems aim to remain available at all times, preventing service disruptions due to power outages, hardware failures, and system upgrades. Ensuring availability also involves preventing denial-of-service attacks , such as
10773-619: The information of a user or organization. This environment includes users themselves, networks, devices, all software, processes, information in storage or transit, applications, services, and systems that can be connected directly or indirectly to networks. The principal objective is to reduce the risks, including preventing or mitigating attacks. These published materials consist of tools, policies, security concepts, security safeguards, guidelines, risk management approaches, actions, training, best practices, assurance and technologies. Common information security standards include ISO/IEC 27001 and
10906-402: The information security management standard O-ISM3 . This standard proposed an operational definition of the key concepts of security, with elements called "security objectives", related to access control (9), availability (3), data quality (1), compliance, and technical (4). Risk is the likelihood that something bad will happen that causes harm to an informational asset (or the loss of
11039-403: The information. Not all information is equal and so not all information requires the same degree of protection. This requires information to be assigned a security classification . The first step in information classification is to identify a member of senior management as the owner of the particular information to be classified. Next, develop a classification policy. The policy should describe
11172-402: The information. The computer programs, and in many cases the computers that process the information, must also be authorized. This requires that mechanisms be in place to control the access to protected information. The sophistication of the access control mechanisms should be in parity with the value of the information being protected; the more sensitive or valuable the information the stronger
11305-473: The intent of the PCI standards. Visa chief enterprise risk officer Ellen Richey said in 2018, "No compromised entity has yet been found to be in compliance with PCI DSS at the time of a breach". However, a 2008 breach of Heartland Payment Systems (validated as PCI DSS-compliant) resulted in the compromising of one hundred million card numbers. Around that time, Hannaford Brothers and TJX Companies (also validated as PCI DSS-compliant) were similarly breached as
11438-702: The kernel or core functions against both deliberate and accidental threats. Multi-purpose and multi-user computer systems aim to compartmentalize the data and processing such that no user or process can adversely impact another: the controls may not succeed however, as we see in incidents such as malware infections, hacks, data theft, fraud, and privacy breaches. More broadly, integrity is an information security principle that involves human/social, process, and commercial integrity, as well as data integrity. As such it touches on aspects such as credibility, consistency, truthfulness, completeness, accuracy, timeliness, and assurance. For any information system to serve its purpose,
11571-409: The lack of controls and safeguards to keep data safe from unauthorized access. Hackers had effortless access to ARPANET, as phone numbers were known by the public. Due to these problems, coupled with the constant violation of computer security, as well as the exponential increase in the number of hosts and users of the system, "network security" was often alluded to as "network insecurity". The end of
11704-417: The largest initial public offering in U.S. history. On March 20, 2008, the IPO underwriters (including JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs & Co., Bank of America Securities LLC, Citi, HSBC, Merrill Lynch & Co., UBS Investment Bank and Wachovia Securities) exercised their overallotment option, purchasing an additional 40.6 million shares, bringing Visa's total IPO share count to 446.6 million, and bringing
11837-401: The late 1970s, however, billing statements no longer contained these enclosures, but rather a summary statement showing posting date, purchase date, reference number, merchant name, and the dollar amount of each purchase. At the same time, many issuers, particularly Bank of America, were in the process of changing their methods of finance charge calculation. Initially, a "previous balance" method
11970-401: The laws of some states refer to PCI DSS directly or make equivalent provisions. Legal scholars Edward Morse and Vasant Raval have said that by enshrining PCI DSS compliance in legislation, card networks reallocated the cost of fraud from card issuers to merchants. In 2007, Minnesota enacted a law prohibiting the retention of some types of payment-card data more than 48 hours after authorization of
12103-398: The merger would eliminate Plaid's potential ability to compete in the online debit market, thereby creating a monopoly for Visa. Visa CEO at the time Alfred Kelly described the acquisition bid as an "insurance policy" to neutralize a "threat to our important US debit business." In January 2021, Visa along with Plaid both mutually agreed to abandon its proposed acquisition. In March 2021,
12236-424: The message, and nobody else could have altered it in transit ( data integrity ). The alleged sender could in return demonstrate that the digital signature algorithm is vulnerable or flawed, or allege or prove that his signing key has been compromised. The fault for these violations may or may not lie with the sender, and such assertions may or may not relieve the sender of liability, but the assertion would invalidate
12369-497: The middle of a business dispute." As of October 31, 2019, Kroger has settled their dispute with Visa and is now accepting the payment method. In January 2020 Visa announced it would acquire Plaid for $ 5.3 billion. In November 2020, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to block Visa's acquisition of fintech startup Plaid, claiming that the merger would violate antitrust laws. The DOJ argues that
12502-748: The nature and value of the data within larger businesses. They are responsible for keeping all of the technology within the company secure from malicious attacks that often attempt to acquire critical private information or gain control of the internal systems. There are many specialist roles in Information Security including securing networks and allied infrastructure , securing applications and databases , security testing , information systems auditing , business continuity planning , electronic record discovery, and digital forensics . Information security standards are techniques generally outlined in published materials that attempt to protect
12635-405: The new Visa Inc. submitted its $ 10 billion IPO filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On February 25, 2008, Visa announced it would go ahead with an IPO of half its shares. The IPO took place on March 18, 2008. Visa sold 406 million shares at US$ 44 per share ($ 2 above the high end of the expected $ 37–42 pricing range), raising US$ 17.9 billion in what was then
12768-513: The new name, " Visa ", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag. NBI became Visa USA and IBANCO became Visa International. The term Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries and that it also denoted universal acceptance. The announcement of the transition came on December 16, 1976, with VISA cards to replace expiring BankAmericard cards starting on March 1, 1977 (initially with both
12901-777: The organization. ISO/IEC 27002 offers a guideline for organizational information security standards. Defense in depth is a fundamental security philosophy that relies on overlapping security systems designed to maintain protection even if individual components fail. Rather than depending on a single security measure, it combines multiple layers of security controls both in the cloud and at network endpoints. This approach includes combinations like firewalls with intrusion-detection systems, email filtering services with desktop anti-virus, and cloud-based security alongside traditional network defenses. The concept can be implemented through three distinct layers of administrative, logical, and physical controls, or visualized as an onion model with data at
13034-415: The other party deny having sent a transaction. It is important to note that while technology such as cryptographic systems can assist in non-repudiation efforts, the concept is at its core a legal concept transcending the realm of technology. It is not, for instance, sufficient to show that the message matches a digital signature signed with the sender's private key, and thus only the sender could have sent
13167-610: The person, then the teller has authenticated that John Doe is who he claimed to be. Similarly, by entering the correct password, the user is providing evidence that he/she is the person the username belongs to. There are three different types of information that can be used for authentication: Visa Inc. Visa Inc. ( / ˈ v iː z ə , ˈ v iː s ə / ) is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California . It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout
13300-596: The previous fiscal cycle. As of 2022, the company ranked 147th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. Visa's shares traded at over $ 143 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$ 280.2 billion in September 2018. Visa Europe began suspending payments to WikiLeaks on December 7, 2010. The company said it was awaiting an investigation into 'the nature of its business and whether it contravenes Visa operating rules' – though it did not go into details. In return DataCell,
13433-406: The principal credit-card organizations resulted in the release of version 1.0 of PCI DSS in December 2004. PCI DSS has been implemented and followed worldwide. The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was then formed, and these companies aligned their policies to create the PCI DSS. MasterCard, American Express, Visa, JCB International and Discover Financial Services established
13566-470: The proposed settlement. Plaintiffs allege that Visa and Mastercard fixed interchange fees , also known as swipe fees, that are charged to merchants for the privilege of accepting payment cards. In their complaint, the plaintiffs also alleged that the defendants unfairly interfere with merchants from encouraging customers to use less expensive forms of payment such as lower-cost cards, cash, and checks. A settlement of US$ 6.24 billion has been reached and
13699-405: The region's financial technology ecosystem. The accelerator program aims to find and partner with startup companies providing financial and payments technologies that could potentially leverage on Visa's network of bank and merchant partners in the region. For the fiscal year 2022, Visa reported earnings of US$ 14.96 billion, with an annual revenue of US$ 29.31 billion, an increase of 21.6% over
13832-511: The revenue that ATM-operators earn, and violates the Sherman Act 's prohibition against unreasonable restraints of trade. Johnathan Rubin, an attorney for the plaintiffs said, "Visa and MasterCard are the ringleaders, organizers, and enforcers of a conspiracy among U.S. banks to fix the price of ATM access fees in order to keep the competition at bay." In 2017, a US district court denied the ATM operators' request to stop Visa from enforcing
13965-477: The risk based upon the relative low value of the asset, the relative low frequency of occurrence, and the relative low impact on the business. Or, leadership may choose to mitigate the risk by selecting and implementing appropriate control measures to reduce the risk. In some cases, the risk can be transferred to another business by buying insurance or outsourcing to another business. The reality of some risks may be disputed. In such cases leadership may choose to deny
14098-488: The risk. Selecting and implementing proper security controls will initially help an organization bring down risk to acceptable levels. Control selection should follow and should be based on the risk assessment. Controls can vary in nature, but fundamentally they are ways of protecting the confidentiality, integrity or availability of information. ISO/IEC 27001 has defined controls in different areas. Organizations can implement additional controls according to requirement of
14231-530: The role of network fees, which are invisible to consumers and place pressure on merchants, who mitigate the fees by raising prices of goods for customers. The probe was confirmed through a regulatory filing on March 19, 2021, stating they will be cooperating with the Justice Department. Visa's shares fell more than 6% following the announcement. On September 24, 2024, the Justice Department sued Visa, alleging that Visa used illegal tactics to maintain
14364-621: The secret-spilling site until it completes its own investigation". The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated that Visa may be "violating WikiLeaks' right to freedom of expression" by withdrawing their services. In July 2012, the Reykjavík District Court in Iceland decided that Valitor (the Icelandic partner of Visa and MasterCard) was violating the law when it prevented donations to
14497-417: The sense that his project was not canceled outright), not in coming up with the idea. By the mid-1950s, the typical middle-class American already maintained revolving credit accounts with several different merchants, which was clearly inefficient and inconvenient due to the need to carry so many cards and pay so many separate bills each month. The need for a unified financial instrument was already evident to
14630-409: The site by credit card. It was ruled that the donations be allowed to return to the site within 14 days or they would be fined in the amount of US$ 6,000 per day. In 2011, MasterCard and Visa were sued in a class action by ATM operators claiming the credit card networks' rules effectively fix ATM access fees. The suit claimed that this is a restraint on trade in violation of US federal law. The lawsuit
14763-499: The support of grants and investments. Supporting resiliency, as well as the growth, of micro and small businesses that benefit women is a priority of the Visa Foundation. Furthermore, the Foundation prioritizes providing support to the community from a broad standpoint, as well as responding to disasters during crisis. In December 2020, Visa Announced the launch of a new accelerator program across Asia Pacific to further develop
14896-451: The testing completed, and an Attestation of Compliance (AOC) documenting that a ROC has been completed and the overall conclusion of the ROC. The PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is a validation tool intended for small to medium sized merchants and service providers to assess their own PCI DSS compliance status. There are multiple types of SAQ, each with a different length depending on
15029-513: The three core concepts. In information security, confidentiality "is the property, that information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes." While similar to "privacy," the two words are not interchangeable. Rather, confidentiality is a component of privacy that implements to protect our data from unauthorized viewers. Examples of confidentiality of electronic data being compromised include laptop theft, password theft, or sensitive emails being sent to
15162-449: The time, BofA deliberately kept this information secret and allowed then-widespread negative impressions to linger in order to ward off competition. This strategy worked until 1966, when BankAmericard's profitability had become far too big to hide. The original goal of BofA was to offer the BankAmericard product across California, but in 1966, BofA began to sign licensing agreements with a group of banks outside of California, in response to
15295-595: The total proceeds to US$ 19.1 billion. Visa now trades under the ticker symbol "V" on the New York Stock Exchange . Visa Europe Ltd. was a membership association and cooperative of over 3,700 European banks and other payment service providers that operated Visa branded products and services within Europe. Visa Europe was a company entirely separate from Visa Inc. having gained independence of Visa International Service Association in October 2007 when Visa Inc. became
15428-462: The twelve requirements have not changed since the inception of the standard. Each requirement and sub-requirement is divided into three sections: In version 3.2.1 of the PCI DSS, the twelve requirements are: The PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council) has released supplemental information to clarify requirements, which includes: Companies subject to PCI DSS standards must be PCI-compliant; how they prove and report their compliance
15561-430: The twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century saw rapid advancements in telecommunications , computing hardware and software , and data encryption . The availability of smaller, more powerful, and less expensive computing equipment made electronic data processing within the reach of small business and home users. The establishment of Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP) in
15694-439: The value of the information resource to the organization." There are two things in this definition that may need some clarification. First, the process of risk management is an ongoing, iterative process . It must be repeated indefinitely. The business environment is constantly changing and new threats and vulnerabilities emerge every day. Second, the choice of countermeasures ( controls ) used to manage risks must strike
15827-449: The various international networks together into a single network with a single name internationally would be in the best interests of the corporation; however, in many countries, there was still great reluctance to issue a card associated with Bank of America, even though the association was entirely nominal in nature. For this reason, in 1976, BankAmericard, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, Chargex, Sumitomo Card, and all other licensees united under
15960-477: The verdict was upheld on appeal. American Express and Discover filed suit as well. In October 2010, Visa and MasterCard reached a settlement with the Department of Justice in another antitrust case. The companies agreed to allow merchants displaying their logos to decline certain types of cards (because interchange fees differ), or to offer consumers discounts for using cheaper cards. On November 27, 2012,
16093-472: The world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards , debit cards and prepaid cards . Visa does not issue cards, extend credit, or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs to their customers. In 2015, the Nilson Report, a publication that tracks
16226-724: The worldwide parent entity Visa International Service Association (Visa), Visa USA Inc., Visa Canada Association, and Visa Europe Ltd. The latter three separately incorporated regions had the status of group members of Visa International Service Association. The unincorporated regions Visa Latin America ( LAC ), Visa Asia Pacific and Visa Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) were divisions within Visa. Initially, signed copies of sales drafts were included in each customer's monthly billing statement for verification purposes—an industry practice known as "country club billing" . By
16359-554: Was about to initiate its own drop in San Francisco, BofA's home market. By March 1959, drops began in San Francisco and Sacramento ; by June, BofA was dropping cards in Los Angeles ; by October, the entire state of California had been saturated with over 2 million credit cards and BankAmericard was being accepted by 20,000 merchants. However, the program was riddled with problems, as Williams (who had never worked in
16492-461: Was designed to help Level 2 merchants meet Mastercard compliance validation requirements. ISA certification empowers an individual to conduct an appraisal of his or her association and propose security solutions and controls for PCI DSS compliance. ISAs are in charge of cooperation and participation with QSAs. Although the PCI DSS must be implemented by all entities which process, store or transmit cardholder data, formal validation of PCI DSS compliance
16625-438: Was double the company's most recent Series C round valuation of $ 2.65 billion, and was expected to close in the next 3–6 months, subject to regulatory review and closing conditions. According to the deal, Visa would pay $ 4.9 billion in cash and approximately $ 400 million of retention equity and deferred equity, according to a presentation deck prepared by Visa. On November 5, 2020, the United States Department of Justice filed
16758-516: Was employed by the Germans to encrypt the data of warfare and was successfully decrypted by Alan Turing , can be regarded as a striking example of creating and using secured information. Procedures evolved to ensure documents were destroyed properly, and it was the failure to follow these procedures which led to some of the greatest intelligence coups of the war (e.g., the capture of U-570 ). Various mainframe computers were connected online during
16891-486: Was filed by the National ATM Council and independent operators of automated teller machines. More specifically, it is alleged that MasterCard's and Visa's network rules prohibit ATM operators from offering lower prices for transactions over PIN-debit networks that are not affiliated with Visa or MasterCard. The suit says that this price-fixing artificially raises the price that consumers pay using ATMs, limits
17024-432: Was pointed out that the cardholder agreement held customers liable for all charges, even those resulting from fraud. BofA officially lost over $ 8.8 million on the launch of BankAmericard, but when the full cost of advertising and overhead was included, the bank's actual loss was probably around $ 20 million. However, after Williams and some of his closest associates left, BofA management realized that BankAmericard
17157-408: Was salvageable. They conducted a "massive effort" to clean up after Williams, imposed proper financial controls, published an open letter to 3 million households across the state apologizing for the credit card fraud and other issues their card raised and eventually were able to make the new financial instrument work. By May 1961, the BankAmericard program became profitable for the first time. At
17290-496: Was selected for its population of 250,000 (big enough to make a credit card work, small enough to control initial startup cost), BofA's market share of that population (45%), and relative isolation, to control public relations damage in case the project failed. According to Williams, Florsheim Shoes was the first major retail chain which agreed to accept BankAmericard at its stores. The 1958 test at first went smoothly, but then BofA panicked when it confirmed rumors that another bank
17423-556: Was soon added to defend disclosures in the interest of the state. A similar law was passed in India in 1889, The Indian Official Secrets Act, which was associated with the British colonial era and used to crack down on newspapers that opposed the Raj's policies. A newer version was passed in 1923 that extended to all matters of confidential or secret information for governance. By the time of
17556-433: Was transformed from a franchising system into a jointly controlled consortium or alliance, like its competitor Master Charge. Hock became NBI's first president and CEO. However, Bank of America retained the right to directly license BankAmericard to banks outside the United States and continued to issue and support such licenses. By 1972, licenses had been granted in 15 countries. The international licensees soon encountered
17689-421: Was used—calculation of finance charge on the unpaid balance shown on the prior month's statement. Later, it was decided to use "average daily balance" which resulted in increased revenue for the issuers by calculating the number of days each purchase was included on the prior month's statement. Several years later, "new average daily balance"—in which transactions from previous and current billing cycles were used in
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