The Verizon 2014 PCI Compliance Report revealed that 88.9% of businesses, following their annual assessment for meeting the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) fail to maintain ongoing compliance, resulting in increased risk for data breaches and financial and reputational damages.

As the industry turns more toward self-service and mobile transactions, it is no surprise that this shift comes with some risk. Payment card transactions remain a target for attackers and data breaches are continue to increase. Verizon's report suggests that in most cases, payment card data breaches are not a failure of security technology or compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Rather, a failure to implement appropriate compliance and security measures is one of the major causes. PCI compliance warrants an ongoing focus.

 "We have seen time and time again that noncompliance leaves an organization open to credit card theft, which can potentially cost hundreds of millions of dollars when you factor in all the damages, not to mention lost consumer trust and the impact on brand reputation. Organizations need to rethink how they factor in maintaining a PCI-compliant environment, whether it's devoting more resources or working with a managed security services provider," said Rodolphe Simonetti, managing director, PCI practice, Verizon Enterprise Solutions.