A majority, 60 per cent of US and 52 per cent of UK businesses believe an attack on payment card data to be quite likely or very likely. That is according to a survey by a provider of secure payment software for contact centres
Semafone made the survey over the summer of 2015 to find the attitudes and practices of UK and US payments firms. Contact centres are seeing no drop in the level of payments taken over the phone. In fact 84 per cent of US and 87 per cent of UK respondents stated that the volume had increased or remained level over the past two years. Only 14 per cent of all respondents suggested that the number of telephone payments has declined.
In spite of this increase in telephone payments, and widespread fear of attack, contact centres appear to be ill-prepared, the survey organisers suggest; only 46 per cent of respondents said that they have implemented and maintain a full set of Payment Card Industry (PCI) controls to reduce the risk of an attack. Most, 81 per cent admitted that they ask their customers to say their card details out loud.
Tim Critchley, CEO of Semafone, said: “It’s astonishing that so many companies still ask their customers to read their card details out loud over the phone. Both card and telephone fraud are on the increase in the US and the UK, but it’s clear that there is more work to be done to put the right security measures in place. It’s good to see that organisations are waking up to the threat of attack and recognising the reputational damage a breach can bring, but we all need to move faster if we want to avoid more large-scale incidents.”
Other findings from the research include:
83 per cent of total respondents (79 per cent US and 86 per cent UK) felt that loss of customers or brand/ reputational damage would be the most damaging effect of a payment card data breach.
68 per cent of UK respondents and 51 per cent of US respondents have a crisis communication plan in place in the event of a payment card data breach.
82 per cent of US respondents and 80 per cent of UK respondents occasionally or always ask their customers to say their card details out loud to the agent when they make payments. 52 per cent of US respondents always ask them to do so, compared with 54 per cent of UK respondents.
Semafone has created a report based on the research that outlines key issues within the secure voice payment industry. The report can be accessed here: https://www.semafone.com/what-the-numbers-say-about-telephone-payments/.
