Mobile commerce has become a force in retail to the extent that the PCI Security Standards Council has taken steps to ensure the safety of consumers shopping through their smartphones and tablets. New PCI guidance recently emerged, aimed at companies’ mobile commerce transaction management systems. The council encouraged companies to protect information at the point of capture.
The PCI council encouraged companies to take on a third-party transaction management solution that can ensure PCI compliance. Such systems should be integrated completely into a company’s IT infrastructure and approved for compliant information capture and transfer. As mobile device hardware is varied and out of merchants’ hands, software is the key to security.
“We know merchants are eager to take advantage of their existing smartphones or tablets to accept payment cards,” said the PCI’s Bob Russo. “And the council and its stakeholders want to help the market to do this in a secure way.”
A recent Gartner report indicated the importance of adding a mobile payment option to a company’s e-commerce strategy. The polling firm found that mobile payments are likely to surpass $171 billion in 2012. The future looks even better for the technology, with a projected growth rate of 42 percent a year through 2016.