A PCI security sing-a-long for retailers everywhere

Neiman Marcus and Target may be amongst the first major retailers to find themselves in the awkward and embarrassing position to admit to their customers that hackers have stolen their data, but they’re unlikely to be the last in 2014.

The truth is that retailers big and small are at risk if they don’t have sufficient protection in place to protect their customers’ credit and debit card data, alongside other personal information.

This is an issue that the Payment Cards Industry Security Standards Council is only too aware of, and it’s trying its hardest to raise awareness amongst retailers to take security measures to make life harder for criminal hackers and fraudsters.

Here’s one imaginative thing that the PCI Council did to raise awareness a few years ago – a rootin’-tootin’ country & western song explaining the data security standards.

You have to admit – the video does makes what can be a slightly dull and dreary topic that little bit more engaging, even if many US shoppers don’t have much to smile about at the moment.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.