Gartner: CardSystems Flaw Shows Deep Credit-Card Security Problems

Gartner analyst Avivah Litan has published an analysis of the CardSystems Solutions card data compromise.

This event points, in particular, to shortcomings in the industry's recently adopted Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards and audit process. Gartner believes that the PCI audit process has been shallow, random and incomplete, and that the card industry needs to accept responsibility for a weak audit process based on overly general standards that need to be updated and strengthened with more details based on practical implementation issues. The fallout and penalties from this incident should not only be levied on CardSystems, but also on the credit-card associations and their approved auditors.