PCI SVA will assist members of the payment card industry and the PCI Security Standards Council - composed of merchants, banks and point-of-sale vendors - in educating the business community on the requirements and business value of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), a global benchmark intended to improve security throughout the entire payment card transaction process.

Founding members of PCI SVA - ConfigureSoft, Inc., Cyber-Ark, Inc., Modulo Security, Proginet, Inc., Protegrity USA, Inc., Reflex Security, SafeNet, Inc. and Verisign - will also support the business community by providing flexible PCI DSS solutions to address the needs of system integrators and business users.

"Even with all the press on data security breaches and the corporate and personal costs that accrue from them, there is still only limited awareness of the PCI data security standards," said Jon Oltsik, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "These standards impose compliance rules that enterprises handling credit or debit card data must resolve from business and technology perspectives. The PCI SVA is a valuable component in addressing this issue holistically."

To demonstrate the business value of PCI DSS solutions, and their value in meeting other regulatory privacy and data security directives, the PCI SVA also plans to create a series of case studies, seminars, return-on-investment analyses, and white papers showing how organizations may achieve compliance with the PCI DSS requirements efficiently and on-budget.

Because PCI DSS requirements are so detailed and market-stringent, the Alliance advocates compliance to PCI DSS in meeting the numerous state, national, and regional, laws governing other business activities concerning systems security and privacy.

PCI SVA members, all with strong experience in delivering PCI compliance solutions to thousands of customers, will leverage this knowledge to support and complement the objectives of Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB in securing the sensitive data processed by their merchant partners.