More than half of IT professionals (54 percent) report their companies experienced a security or data breach involving payment data over the past two years, according to the Global Study on the State of Payment Data Security from digital security company Gemalto.
The survey includes input from 3,773 IT professionals from 11 countries, including the United States. Here are five findings from the survey.
1. When it comes to securing payment data, respondents shared varying levels of confidence. More than half (53 percent) reported high levels of confidence of their companies' traditional credit card and check payment security. Just 36 percent of respondents reported the same level of confidence when it comes to Internet payments, and only 26 percent of respondents were confident their companies' mobile payments security was very effective.
2. More than half of respondents (51 percent) said their companies' payment data has been breached one to three times. Other respondents reported the following breach frequency:
• Four to six times: 32 percent
• Seven to 10 times: 6 percent
• More than 10 times: 7 percent
• Never: 4 percent
3. The majority of the survey's respondents (72 percent) believe new payment methods, such as mobile payments, are putting payment data at risk.
4. Payment data is most likely to be at risk:
• When it is being stored: 42 percent
• When it is in transit between the company and financial institution and/or payment processor: 33 percent
• At its point of sale: 25 percent
5. The following positions and departments are responsible for payment data security, according to respondents:
• CIO: 28 percent
• Business unit: 26 percent
• Compliance: 19 percent
• CISO: 15 percent
• Risk management: 8 percent
• Legal: 4 percent
• Internal audit: 2 percent