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finance & strategy
integrating security into your company’s
DNA
Prepaid industry experts share strategies to bolster your company’s data security.
By Bill Grabarek, Senior Editor
Close your eyes and imagine your business going away, or severely damaged, because your company didn’t pay
enough attention to data security. Security breaches that lead to the theft of cardholder data or vital company information continue, and the instances are receiving greater attention from the mainstream media, legislators and consumers.
While a security breach can devas- tate a business, the entire industry
faces reputational risk and ero- sion in consumers’ trust in elec- tronic payments. The small size
of prepaid, relative to debit and credit cards, generally insulates
it from becoming front page news should a breach occur; however,
if the practice of paying with a card gets tarnished, prepaid gets tarnished, too.
The call to action for prepaid industry participants, including program managers, processors
and distributors, is to keep
their security strong—to shield consumer, client and their own company information from data thieves. They also must steel themselves against hackers’ ef- forts in a way that doesn’t alien- ate consumers through inconve- nience. The prevailing sentiment from prepaid industry insiders who spoke with Paybefore is that security must be integrated into a company’s DNA, from
the CEO down.