Data breaches are a serious problem. According to the RiskBased Security Q3 2019 Data Breach QuickView Report, over 5,000 breaches amounting to 7.9 Billion records exposed occurred in the first nine months of 2019 alone.

It’s 2020, which makes it the perfect time to reflect on the past decade of payments — and to predict what the future holds. We’ve come a long way over the past ten years, witnessing the rise of e-commerce to m-commerce and undergoing a vast transformation away from analog into the digital world. 

Becoming PCI compliant can be a tall order for any organization, but it can be especially tricky when there is a single person responsible for PCI compliance.

Do you have a thorough understanding of how credit cards and other payments are accepted across your university?

In Part I, we discussed the evolving nature of payments and how universities face a complex ecosystem of various vendors. Managing risk around all these vendors and ensuring compliance can be a tall order. In Part II, we look at more specific ways that universities can vet, validate, and assess vendor partnerships to ensure that PCI compliance is achieved and maintained. 

As a university, you likely work with a number of third party vendors across campus and departments to keep things running smoothly. When it comes to payments, keeping tabs on these vendors is a necessary but sometimes overwhelming function.

A Junto Institute podcast Featuring Bryan Jurewicz

With all the buzz about the upcoming PCI DSS v4.0 release, it can be helpful to understand the nuts and bolts of how an organization becomes (and remains) compliant.

If you’re reading this, your personal data has been exposed in a data breach. You’re another number, another statistic, another victim.

Finding out that you have been breached can throw your entire organization into crisis mode. The subsequent response may seem chaotic, scary, and overwhelming; but dealing with a breach—and being prepared to deal with a breach—can go a long way in ensuring your organization survives the aftermath.

We’ve written a few times about PCI DSS compliance here and here, but you should also know that the PCI Security Standards Council announced earlier this year that it has started planning the fourth version of the PCI DSS.

As a higher education institution, you are likely aware of the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). Adherence to these requirements is mandatory for all organizations (including all departments and campuses within a university) that process credit card transactions⁠—and PCI compliance must be certified annually. This is a huge undertaking, especially for universities that may not have buy-in or help from other integral departments.

As the guardians of all things cash management, payments, and bank account related, treasurers have an obligation to command control over fraud and security measures. According to the 2019 Treasury Fraud & Controls Survey Report issued by Strategic Treasurer and Bottomline Technologies, there are several areas of opportunity within treasuries to better combat fraud and close the gap on vulnerabilities. We explore the highlights of the report here.

Society is moving closer and closer toward a “cashless” way of life. Higher education is not exempt from this shift, though as large institutions that are often bogged down by legacy systems, many are falling behind the times when it comes to catering to younger generations.