The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under the Data Protection Act (DPA) have been allowed to levy fines up to £500,000 for serious data breaches of losses in the UK. Imperva, the data security specialist, applauds this act and urges other governments to follow this lead to guard against security breaches with the standards of the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
Amichai Shulman, Imperva’s Chief Technology Officer, said, “PCI DSS takes the pragmatic approach of defining exactly what has to be done and effectively giving the IT manager a blueprint for their data security plans. PCI has a very promising benefit that government regulators should consider seriously. In September 2009, a Ponemon study highlighted that PCI enabled companies to make security a strategic initiative which led to fewer breaches. The survey indicated that some companies used the PCI mandate to help successfully increase security budget and make their enterprises much safer. That’s the type of behaviour to encourage.”