The House Financial Services Committee held a full committee hearing on data and cyber security, where the Members of Congress challenged payment industry experts on protecting consumer data in the era of computer hacking.

Brian Dodge of the Industry Leaders Association, Laura Moy of the New America Foundation, Stephen Orfei of the PCI Security Standards Council, Jason Oxman of the Electronic Transactions Association and Tim Pawlenty of the Financial Services Roundtable were called to speak before the Committee.

The panel covered a range of issues, from foreign cyber security threats, to malware at the point-of-sale, to card fraud and online fraud, to the costs of fraud on financial institutions, merchants and consumers.  Several Members debated ongoing legislation and the role that Federal and State regulators and law enforcement agencies should play in consumer breach protection.

In their opening statements, Mr. Oxman and also Mr. Orfei advocated for a layered approach to data security, with EMV at the point of sale, point-to-point encryption, and tokenization.

Mr. Orfei continued, “EMV chip is not a silver bullet.  Additional controls are needed to protect the integrity of payments online and in other channels.  This includes encryption, tamper resistant devices, malware protection, network monitoring and more.  All are vital parts of the PCI standards.”

As a solution provider, FreedomPay has committed to delivering the highest standards in the industry that help merchants protect their customers’ credit card data.  FreedomPay offers merchants the technologies and supporting programs be on the leading edge of payment data security, adhering to the rigorous PCI Validated P2PE standard, and extending functionality across the broad ecosystem of Card Present and Card Not Present payments.

EMV, PCI Validated P2PE and tokenization are what we do.  And really, that is only the beginning.  Just wait until you see what secure transaction data can do.