ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) announced today that members of the Data Security Committee will meet on Thursday, October 22, 2009, at 4:00 PM PDT, at the PCATS Lounge in room C-201, during the NACS Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada. All petroleum convenience retail industry professionals are invited to attend the first face-to-face meeting to hear about the latest news relating to data security standards and payment card industry (PCI) compliance issues impacting the industry.
“It is expected that convenience store retailers will spend billions of dollars to comply with security mandates intended to help secure consumer card and transaction data. The PCATS Data Security Committee will further the goal of offering customers a safe and secure card payment infrastructure by providing cost-effective tools for retailers, regardless of size, to reduce and eliminate security risks and help them remain profitable,” said Turkey Hill Minit Markets Vice President of IT/Petroleum and PCATS Chair Gabriel Olives.
“We are looking forward to building a solid committee structure to address all of the challenging issues faced by our industry in regards to data security,” said PCATS Data Security Committee Chair and NACS’ Card Payments Consultant Gray Taylor. “We plan to establish Education, Compliance, Data Security Strategy and Standards Review & Best Practices Working Groups to help retailers exceed their mandated data security requirements in a cost-effective manner and continue to protect both critical business and customer data from compromise,” added Taylor.
The PCATS Data Security Committee will:
- Provide the industry with a technical focal point on data security and data security standards/mandates;
- Keep abreast of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) initiatives and provide clear guidance on best practices and deadlines;
- Determine the impact of data security standards on all existing PCATS standards;
- Identify and implement promising data security technologies brought forward by committee members that further meaningful data security in our industry;
- Establish data security standards best practices that leverage and secure the significant IT investments made by our industry; and
- Minimize industry investment and uncertainty around security mandates by taking an active role in creating retail data security standards.
To view the agenda of the upcoming PCATS Data Security Committee Meeting, please visit http://www.pcats.org/node/2915. The PCATS Lounge is located on the expo floor in room C-201, North Hall, at the Las Vegas Convention Center. For information about the NACS Show 2009, please visit www.nacsonline.com.
###
About PCATS
The Petroleum Convenience Alliance for Technology Standards (PCATS) was founded in September 2003 to continue the development and maintenance of standards work initiated under the NACS Technology Standards Project. PCATS’ mission is to develop, maintain and assist members in the implementation of a variety of technology standards. With over 150 members, the group’s membership represents more than 22,000 convenience stores. Membership is open to any petroleum marketer, convenience store owner/operator, other retail channels, or any of their suppliers or vendors. For additional information regarding PCATS, please visit www.pcats.org/discover.