By the end of 2007, any organization that processes credit card transactions must be in compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS). However, many retailers have not opted to pursue compliance, even though they know they must. Non-compliance represents not only significant fiduciary risk, it severely threatens retailer reputation and brand value, and can result in an organization not being allowed to process credit cards.
Retail customers carry cash less often. This causes issues with privacy advocates and security for retailers. Additionally, large scale data breaches that compromise confidential customer information and increase risk for identity theft have become all too familiar on the nightly news.