New Report Finds Small to Mid-Sized Businesses Making Progress on Security

November 12, 2013 – ControlScan and Merchant Warehouse jointly released the results of their fifth annual survey of Level 4 merchants’ awareness, sentiment and progress toward securing cardholder data in compliance with payment card industry (PCI) standards.

The Level 4 merchant group represents 98% of all U.S. retailers, is primarily comprised of small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), and numbers in the millions. The newly-released research report “Payment Security and the SMB: The Fifth Annual Survey of Level 4 Merchant PCI Compliance Trends” reveals that as a group these merchants are making progress, yet key concerns remain.

“Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents believe complying with PCI standards improves the security of their business, and that’s encouraging,” said Joan Herbig, CEO of ControlScan. “As a whole, though, these merchants are showing a lack of corresponding activity for prevention and detection. In addition, they are not prepared should a data breach occur.”

A total of 615 Level 4 merchants responded to the 2013 survey, providing many critical insights for independent sales organizations (ISOs), acquirers and other merchant service providers (MSPs), including:

• 43% are personally responsible for information security in their organization, while 35% say no one is assigned the responsibility;
• 51% do not require their third-party service providers to achieve and maintain PCI compliance; and
• Only 36% have developed an incident response plan (IRP) for their business.

To access a copy of the survey research report, click here.  In addition, ControlScan and Merchant Warehouse are hosting a joint webinar on November 20, 2013 to present the study’s findings. Click here for more information and to register.

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