Payments: The Future of Security & CX Event Roundup

The payments industry has gone through a transformation over the last year due to the pandemic, with organizations accelerating the roll-out of new payment experiences to meet changing consumer needs. At the same time, COVID-19 has brought with it new security vulnerabilities as organizations transitioned to remote work and consumers adopted new digital tools and solutions. But a year into the pandemic, how are we doing?

In February, PCI Pal hosted its inaugural virtual conference, Payments: The Future of Security & CX, to explore that very question. Over 300 registrants had the opportunity to hear from industry experts about new developments across payments, customer experiences, data security, and compliance to meet changing needs in the new normal.

(Images of the event pictured above.)

Opening Keynote

Following a welcome from PCI Pal CEO, James Barham, Neira Jones, an internationally renowned expert within the payments, fintech, and cybersecurity space, gave a peek into an industry that has been particularly devastated by the pandemic: retail.

Retailers have long relied upon in-person shopping to boost their sales, but the onset of COVID-19 forced many retailers to accelerate digital transformation efforts to adapt to the new world of online shopping and digital payments.

In her keynote, Neira highlighted new trends and solutions across the payments industry to help retailers survive in 2021. These include touchless options such as QR codes and in-app payments, digital wallets, and voice shopping, as well as the growing trend of open banking. She also discussed the new risks associated with them.

The World Economic Forum is calling cyberattacks one of the “key threats of the next decade”. Cybersecurity and fraud issues have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic, and retailers must prioritize securing sensitive customer data. Rather than thinking of data security as a requirement for compliance with regional data standards, it should be a key component of delivering a positive customer experience.

[Related: Watch Neira’s Opening Keynote]

Partner Breakout Sessions

Next, attendees had the opportunity to attend breakout sessions hosted by notable PCI Pal partners including 8×8, Civica, Oracle, Vonage, Conn3ct, NICE inContact, Pay360, PayPal, Calabrio, Talkdesk, and Worldpay from FIS. Sessions focused on retail trends, compliance strategies, cybersecurity threats, and the digitization of payments.

Closing Keynote

Last, but certainly not least, Ciske Van Oosten, Head of Global Business Intelligence at Verizon, shared his expertise on PCI compliance. He noted continued challenges and a decline throughout the pandemic in compliance sustainability.

Breaking down the components of achieving PCI compliance, Ciske shared that the goal should be “the development and maintenance of a mature data security compliance program rooted in sound strategy. Resulting in sustainable and effective data security with continuous improvement in a consistent and predictable manner.”

And, in the current cybersecurity landscape, organizations shouldn’t just be aiming for sustainable PCI compliance, but going above and beyond the requirements to ensure their company and customers are protected from new and emerging threats.

[Related: Watch Ciske’s Closing Keynote]