Mobile Marketing and Commerce Strategies

With more people than ever browsing and shopping through mobile applications, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC)—the industry body responsible for the PCI Data Security Standard—has released new guidance and best practices for protecting payment card information in the mobile environment.

The new information is aimed at further securing the mobile payment process in a time when retailers are looking at how to best leverage the growing popularity of mobile commerce, according to SC Magazine. Recommendations given by the council range from implementing secure coding practices and reducing third-party access to payment card information to creating tools that can monitor suspicious activity. Overall, members of the council said, the new guidelines reflect those for traditional payment processes, but they have also taken into account considerations for mobile environments. That includes protecting data as it’s transmitted to and from mobile devices, as well as while it is processed by the retailers.

Yankee Group Principal Analyst Nick Holland comments

“Mobile payment fraud will inevitably become a problematic element of this fledgling industry as increased consumer adoption equates to a volume of transactions worthy of pursuing for criminal gain. However, mobile also offers an opportunity for card details to be removed entirely from the merchant environment, potentially reducing or even removing merchant exposure to credit card fraud. While it is hard to envisage any merchant today saying ‘no’ to all credit card transactions, mobile technology could go a long way to cutting plastic out of payments.”