Discussion Paper

Information security, data breaches, and protecting cardholder information: facing up to the challenges

Abstract: On September 13 and 14, 2006, the Payment Cards Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Electronic Funds Transfer Association (EFTA) hosted a conference entitled ?Information Security, Data Breaches, and Protecting Cardholder Information: Facing Up to the Challenges.? The two-day event was designed to bring together a diverse set of stakeholders from the U.S. payments industry to discuss a framework to guide industry practices and inform public policy. This paper summarizes key highlights from this event. Conference participants emphasized that the industry must address two fundamental issues: (1) increasingly dangerous threats to sensitive consumer information and (2) public perception and understanding of the risks from data breaches. These challenges are related but need different solutions. A consensus emerged that while the situation is not yet dire, it is serious, and warrants attention from all payments stakeholders.

Keywords: Data protection; Payment systems; Computer security;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Part of Series: Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers

Publication Date: 2006

Number: 07-01