Payment security
Maintaining security and trust in electronic
payments is fundamental to Visa Europe's business.
We're constantly working to evolve the payments infrastructure,
to develop new security-led products and features, and to reduce
the impact of fraud when it happens. Over the past five years our
efforts have seen fraud losses as a percentage of sales decrease
steadily.
Wherever and whenever someone uses a Visa product, multiple
layers of security are in place keeping cardholders safe, the
system secure, and retailers and businesses protected.
Keeping the Visa payment system secure: protecting cardholder
data
As fraudsters become more sophisticated, our attention has
turned towards protecting not just the physical card, but the data
that travels through the payment system.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a
set of global and industry-wide requirements, which are supported
by all international payment card systems. PCI DSS was created by
Visa and MasterCard in 2004.
PCI DSS is now owned and managed by an independent industry
organisation (the PCI Security Standards Council), made up of
representatives from all stakeholders in the card industry: banks,
service providers, vendors, retailers, and businesses.
Today, Visa Europe continues to lead the industry with new
guidelines on the adoption of Data Field Encryption solutions to
support PCI DSS compliance and keep cardholder data secure. Used
properly, Data Field Encryption can rapidly improve security,
reduce the cost of achieving and maintaining compliance, and offer
the flexibility needed to complement existing security
measures.
For more information about PCI DSS, go to:
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/index.php
Keeping the Visa payment system secure: EMV chip
Visa Europe plays an important industry role in defining the
risk and fraud management standards that keep the payments system
safe.
EMV chip card technology, for example, has been developed
through specifications agreed by Visa, MasterCard, and Europay, and
adds a new layer of protection against fraud. The EMV chip embedded
in the card has significantly reduced counterfeit fraud, while the
use of a PIN to identify the genuine cardholder prevents ‘lost and
stolen’ fraud. In markets where the use of chip and PIN is
widespread, these types of fraud are at record low levels.