Because of this, the security of your customers' data should be a prime concern for your businesses. Businesses that can help provide their customers with a sense of security about the safety of their information, gain the trust, and commerce, of their customers.

To help ensure that both your business and your customers are safe from identity thieves, the Office of Consumer Affairs developed the "Identity theft toolkit for business." The toolkit is a best practices guide provided by the government and outlines steps you can take to keep your customers' and your business' information secure. Click here to download a copy of the toolkit.

If you are a Visa^® merchant, then you are already aware of these best practices. The guidelines in the toolkit are covered off in the Visa Account Information Security Program (AIS), which all Visa merchants are required to comply with.

Visa has aligned its AIS program with MasterCard's SDP program to provide a common set of industry tools and measurements. These new tools and measurements were developed to ensure the safe handling of sensitive information and improve cardholder confidence. Merchants and service providers are now able to assess the status of their security by using a single set of security requirements for all payment organizations.

This will result in lower costs, reduced complexity and wider acceptance of standard security requirements for the industry. The alignment also allows merchants and service providers to select one vendor and implement a single process to comply with both payment card data security programs.

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