PCI Compliance Important to 80% of UK Organisations, According to Breach and Evolution Security Survey

Report Finds 35% of Organisations Working Toward PCI Compliance

London, April 29, 2009 — Breach Security, Inc., the leader in web application integrity, security and PCI compliance, and Evolution Security Systems Ltd today jointly released their 2008 UK PCI Compliance Report. Evolution Security Systems is a leader in digital and information security, partnering with institutions to protect their assets and manage their security infrastructure on an ongoing basis. Surveying UK organisations across a variety of market sectors, including healthcare, government, e-commerce, finance and banking, the report findings indicate that PCI compliance is important to eight in 10 UK organisations. Further, 57 percent, are either PCI compliant or actively working toward becoming compliant. While this represents good progress, it also indicates that the UK is trailing the United States in adoption of PCI compliance.

In addition, the survey found that 16 percent of organisations don’t know what it means to be PCI compliant and nearly one in five companies reported not knowing if PCI compliance is important. “With over 40 percent of UK organisations not serious about PCI compliance, sensitive customer and cardholder data is in jeopardy for many of the online transactions that take place,” said Sanjay Mehta, SVP for Breach Security. “Web application hackers are becoming both more savvy and malicious with each passing month, and without the protection afforded by PCI compliance, the data security of these organisations is at risk.”

“PCI compliance has become a significant priority around the world, particularly in the United States, and UK organisations need to wake up to the threat,” said Dale Moreton, head of sales and marketing at Evolution Security Systems. “In addition to trailing U.S. adoption rates, it’s concerning that 20 percent of UK organisations are naive about PCI compliance, its importance and the ramifications of ignoring it.”

With online customer data being nearly impossible to secure and easy to hack, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) established compliance requirements to protect customers by including web application security requirements in its Data Security Standard (DSS). All organisations that process, store or transmit credit, debit or other payment card information must be in compliance with the PCI DSS. Further, requirement 6.6 states that all web-facing applications must be protected and web application firewalls have become the de facto standard for compliance in enterprise organisations.

Breach and Evolution’s report found that one in three UK organisations are not planning to become PCI compliant, while 18 percent are planning to become compliant in three to six months, 11 percent in six to 12 months, and five percent in more than one year.

In addition to immediate PCI compliance, Breach Security’s WebDefend provides organisations with real-time, continuous security for all protected web applications. The device automatically profiles acceptable behavior and dynamically adapts to code changes in a web application. While providing comprehensive security, WebDefend also delivers immediate ROI by providing information on application defects that can disrupt the end user experience and erode an organisations brand.

Interested parties can learn more about the survey from Breach and Evolution at Booth #M75 at InfoSec Europe on April 28-30, 2009.

About Breach Security
Breach Security, Inc. is the leading provider of real-time, continuous web application integrity, security and compliance that protects sensitive web-based information. Breach Security’s products protect web applications from hacking attacks and data leakage, and ensure applications operate as intended. The company’s products are trusted by thousands of organisations around the world, including leaders in finance, healthcare, ecommerce, travel and government. For more information, please visit www.breach.com.

Follow Breach Security on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/BreachSecurity.

About Evolution Security Systems Ltd
Evolution Security Systems Ltd is a pioneer in digital and information security.  Evolution provides a broad range of digital security solutions and products. They have established close links with a full range of major security vendors. As a top tier partner with leading vendors in all major fields of digital security, they maintain close links with a wide selection of third parties to ensure they offer the best possible choice in security products and services