By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa – AfricanBrains
SOUTH Africa’s biggest media house, Naspers, just keeps on innovating.
This time its the PayU, a Naspers-owned mobile and online payment service provider, has been awarded PCI DSS Level 1 certification – demonstrating the company’s commitment to protecting the security of online shoppers’ card data. The PCI DSS is a set of comprehensive safety requirements that payment gateways need to comply with to ensure that all cardholder data is always stored, processed and transmitted securely.
A statement read: “As a payment service provider that enables businesses to accept debit and credit card payments online, compliance with data security best practices is of the utmost importance for the company. PayU is one of few payment gateways in the country to have received this certification.
“These wide-ranging standards have been established due to the escalating statistics of stolen cardholder account data. This has resulted in merchants and financial institutions suffering fraud losses and has incurred unforeseen operational expenses, which has inconvenienced consumers significantly. Receiving this certification therefore became imperative for us in order to protect our merchants and customers,” comments Mark Chirnside, CEO of PayU.
PCI DSS has been developed by the major credit card companies, including MasterCard and VISA, proactively to protect cardholder payment data, and covers security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design and other critical protective measures. As compliance is a continuous requirement, an annual audit is conducted to ensure that certified companies maintain their level of compliance. The PCI Security Standards Council regularly reviews the PCI standards to ensure that improved data security measures are introduced for detection and prevention of fraud.
“PayU processes approximately 65% of the e-commerce transaction value in South Africa. It is therefore crucial that we have a safe and secure environment, compliant to the highest industry standard to prevent security vulnerability and breaches. PayU is committed to providing merchants and customers with a convenient, fast and safe way to transact online; the PCI DSS certification has proven that we are confidently able to offer this,” said Chirnside.
Thandisizwe Mgudlwa is the South African correspondent for AfricanBrains. He has written for The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Independent and The New York Times among others. Email - thandisizwe.mgudlwa@africanbrains.org
Tags: Innovation, Media House, Mobiles, Naspers, Online payments, PayU, PCI DSS
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