Visa releases a whitepaper of recommendations for hotels to protect card data

Visa Europe has released the first whitepaper to help the hospitality business owners safeguard their customers’ data against fraud. In the 'Hospitality Breaches on the Rise' Visa offers insight on how cyber-criminals target hotels, and guidance on how data can be protected to help businesses comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Trustwave, a Visa Qualified Forensics Investigator (QFI), reported in a study that 38% of all card compromise incident investigations in 2009 occurred in the hospitality industry which means that this sector is in more need to get efficient data protection. Compared with usual merchants who have only one POS terminal hotels have complex payment systems which makes it harder for them to be PCI DSS compliant. Hotels have multiple pay terminals at locations such as the reservation desk, restaurant, bar, or for room service, internet access and online bookings.

Visa Europe and Trustwave, in consultation with leading hotels, has developed a series of recommendations to help hoteliers and franchises lower the risk of security breaches.