The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) has adopted the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which was approved by the Council of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard that is concerned with laying down the security standards for payment cards internationally so as to provide a high level of protection and data secrecy for payment card operations and to reduce deception risks. SAMA had taken the initiative in late 2009 to lay down a program aiming to upgrade the standard of protection for the Saudi Payment Network (SPAN) and the data of its cards and credit payment cards by implementing the standard requirements in its internal systems and at local banks in addition to all parties related to financial operations, especially payment and credit cards, like link-up service providers and companies importing sales outlet equipment, companies printing bank cards and payment service providers through sales outlets. SAMA recently obtained a certificate of conformity with the standard in addition to all banks providing payment card services in the Kingdom. This represents a big and important step to raise the standard of data security and payment card operations concerning clients as well as boosting information security in general in the Saudi banking sector. Compliance with the standard requirements is a continuous process to continually assist in monitoring security threats and improving the means for dealing with them and tackling the risks of hacking payment card data. Implementation of the standard requirements on the sector has resulted in a number of benefits, such as making the various bodies more ready to conform with the other world security standards, to boost the bases of security strategies and provide good opportunities for getting acquainted with the means for improving the efficiency of the information technology infrastructure.
