Another ETA annual meeting has come and gone. For at least the third year in a row, PCI is the buzzword – not “a” buzzword, “THE” buzzword. I find it strange that while the various payment security programs like CISP, PCI, PCI-DSS, PABP, PA-PED and now PA-DSS have been evolving for years, the confusion level among the attendees stays consistent. I’m not sure the reason. Some of my thoughts on possible reasons are (in no particular order):
- Maybe new people are entering the industry faster than the industry can educate?
- Possibly the initial confusion level was higher than it appeared and this confusion is being rationed over time?
- Maybe this is normal when attempting to apply security terms and techniques to a mostly non-technical community?
- Maybe the evolution process of these programs is happening at a faster pace than the education of the industry that must abide by the programs?
- Maybe I’m just totally misreading the confusion level of the attendees and it’s the exhibitors that are confused?
Whether or not any of these are true or multiple factors are involved, a focus of the entire meeting was on education and in this regard the ETA hit a home run. Keep up the good work.
Exhibitor wise, this show goes in cycles – probably not unlike most industries. What is in today will be old tomorrow and what was old will be new again. Ignoring PCI (because that’s been a consistent vendor buzzword for years now), from what I remember, three years ago the buzz was Dynamic Currency Conversion or DCC. Two years ago terminals seemed like the hot item – terminal hardware manufacturers, terminal software developers, and terminal deployment & support vendors. Last year virtual gateways seemed to be in vogue – everyone and their brother had some form of a virtual terminal implementation and a few offered POS integration. This year terminals seemed to make a come back although due to industry “consolidation”, less terminal manufacturers but the terminal software developers picked up the slack. Will DCC be next year’s new thing? (GOD I hope not) I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
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