What Is Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP)?

It's no secret that credit cards are a great way to pay for things, but it's also a fact that they're a bit of a security nightmare. That's why Visa USA developed the cardholder information security program (CISP) in 2001. The CISP is a standard credit card companies use to protect cardholder information during transactions and processing on the internet, over the phone or at the point of sale. The CISP includes standards on how merchants should store this sensitive data. While some companies may find the CISP too restrictive, other merchants have embraced it to ensure customer satisfaction and keep their customers safe from fraudsters. It's no secret that the Visa cardholder information security program is one of the essential elements of a secure payment system. Protecting our client's data and preventing financial loss is paramount and we take that very seriously with every new technology. We look for ways to improve and innovate to keep pace with ever-changing consumer demands. At Visa, we understand how important it is for our partners to protect their cardholder data and we want to help you to do that. Our team is dedicated to keeping up with the latest industry trends to provide you with a robust platform that will allow you to safely store your customer's sensitive personal information. Once upon a time, there was no standard for credit card security. There were just a bunch of people using their cards for stuff and hoping for the best. But then in 2004, things changed when the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) was implemented. This standard sets forth requirements for how to protect credit card information when it is being used online or in physical stores. It was all thanks to Visa and MasterCard, who partnered up so that there could be a common industry standard for protecting credit card data! and now, the PCI DSS is maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council! It’s like a fairy tale!

By TechDogs Editorial Team

Related Terms by Consumer Electronics Technology

Cellular Automaton (CA)

Cellular automatons are not entirely cellular, quiet, and wholly atomic. They are the best of all worlds when you take the three fields mentioned above, study and play with them as any good scientist would. A cellular automaton (CA) is a system of many cells linked together using those cells' specific order and states. The goal is to change how each cell is ordered through repeated steps in an algorithm. The rules determine how cells change conditions over time. This happens multiple times until the CA stops changing and has reached an end state. Cellular automatons are many mathematical models studied in physics, computer science, social sciences, and other fields. Many natural phenomena, such as snowflakes, tree growth, and fire, inspire them. Cellular automatons are of interest for many reasons. One of them is that they are a non-linear model of physical phenomena. Given the same initial conditions, their outcomes may differ depending on the ruleset, much like non-linear differential equations. Another reason is that their rule sets are often simple enough to be implemented in a computer, allowing in-silico experimentation. Finally, some cellular automatons are used in modeling social and technological phenomena. If the number of ON neighbors exceeds the number of ones, the cell changes its state to ON; if the numbers are reversed, it changes its state to OFF. These rules are self-executing and do not require any external input. Depending on the number and placement of cells, it is possible to construct a variety of interesting CA with various properties and behaviors. The most common rule for a one-dimensional grid is for updating each site (i.e., each grid cell) independently, based on the values of its current neighbors. Cellular Automaton is exciting and intriguing. They're easy to understand but hard to predict. You'll need to sit down with a cup of coffee and think deeply about how they work to start seeing their beauty. Primarily though, they're fun.

Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)

Are you prepared to "chain" yourself to the subject of Cipher Block Chaining (CBC)? It's a method of encrypting information that's used to help keep data safe, and despite how dull it may sound, it's pretty fascinating! CBC, or "block chaining," is a method for encrypting data. This method gets its name because it operates by first dividing the data into blocks and then chaining them together. The output of one block is used as the input for the subsequent block, meaning each block must be encrypted using a unique secret key. Because of this, it is significantly more difficult for potential attackers to decode the data since they would need to crack the encryption for each block in the chain. The CBC algorithm needs to be foolproof, as it has weaknesses that can be exploited by malicious actors, such as when they use padding attacks or other similar techniques. But in general, it is a reliable method for encrypting data. It is used extensively in various contexts, including SSL/TLS protocols, virtual private networks (VPNs), and disc encryption. You may be questioning why we must use encryption in the first place. Consider all the sensitive information, like credit card numbers, login credentials, personal messages, and more, that we send and receive over the internet. If someone with bad intentions were to obtain access to such information, they could put it to any number of unethical uses if they so chose. Even if unauthorized parties receive our data, encryption can ensure that it will remain secure and confidential. Cipher Block Chaining may not be the most exciting topic, but it is crucial for everyone who cares about security and privacy. That is all there is to it, folks; I hope you found this information useful. #CBC #Encryption #Cybersecurity #DataPrivacy #SSL #TLS #VPN #DiskEncryption

Carrier IQ

If your phone company knows more about you than you do, it's probably Carrier IQ. Carrier IQ is a company that provides analytics software to various telecom providers. They've developed programs that offer information about smartphone users to cellphone carriers, like what apps they use, how often they use them, how long they spend on them, and even where the user is using them. The problem with this is that there needs to be a way for an average user to know whether or not her carrier has installed these programs on her phone. Even if she knows that her page uses the Carrier IQ program, she cannot opt out of it or stop it from collecting data about her activities and movements. The fact that this kind of information is being collected without our knowledge or consent raises serious privacy concerns—yet we have no say in whether or not our carriers can do this. Privacy advocates are up in arms over the Carrier IQ scandal, which involves a company collecting performance data on smartphone users. Carrier IQ gathers performance data, tracking and logging what users do on their phones. This can include calls made, texts sent, and emails received. While this is not necessarily an invasion of privacy in terms of content (e.g., Carrier IQ does not have access to the actual content of phone calls), it does present a risk to user privacy because it allows third parties access to information about whom you called or texted, whether you're using your phone to browse the web or send emails, etc. The issue came to light when reports revealed that Carrier IQ had collected information about users' phone activity without their knowledge or consent. It was reported that some phones were even sending data from users' text messages directly to Carrier IQ without permission from the device's owner!

Trending Definitions

Hot Standby

Hot standby is like having a backup singer for a concert, just in case the lead singer gets sick. It's all about having a plan B in case plan A doesn't work out. In the world of technology, hot standby refers to a system in which a backup device or system is ready to take over if the primary device or system fails. It's like having an understudy for a play, just in case the lead actor gets hurt. The technical keyword for this process is "High Availability," which is the ability of a system to remain operational and accessible to users during a failure or maintenance. For example, let's say you have a website that gets a lot of traffic. You would set up a hot standby system to ensure that the website stays up and running, even in case of a failure. It would be a duplicate of the primary system, ready to take over if the primary system goes down. It's like having a backup generator for a power outage so that you can keep the lights on. Hot standby systems can also be used for load balancing. It's like having two bouncers at a party, one at the front door and one at the back. They both do the same job, but if one gets overwhelmed, the other can step in to help. Hot standby systems can be active or passive. An active hot standby system is like an understudy who is ready to perform at any moment, while a passive hot standby system is like an understudy who needs some time to prepare before performing. To ensure that the hot standby system is always ready to take over, companies often replicate their data and systems to the hot standby in real-time. It's like having a twin who always has your back and knows exactly what you're going through. In summary, Hot standby refers to a system in which a backup device or system is ready to take over if the primary device or system fails. It's like having a backup singer for a concert, just in case the lead singer gets sick. The technical keyword for this process is "High Availability," which is the ability of a system to remain operational and accessible to users during a failure or maintenance. Hot standby systems can be used for load balancing, and to ensure that the hot standby system is always ready to take over, companies often replicate their data and systems to the hot standby in real-time.

Breakpoint (C#)

The best way to understand a Breakpoint (C#) is to imagine driving through the desert and seeing an oasis ahead. It will be refreshing, but you want to save time getting there! What do you do? You pull over, of course. You stop your car at the exact moment that will allow you to arrive at the oasis as quickly as possible with minimal effort. That's precisely what breakpoints are for in C#. They're like little yellow traffic cones that tell your program, "Hey! Stop here!" You can set them anywhere in your code where you want it to pause on its own accord—they won't interfere with anything else unless they're triggered by something like an exception or an event handler (e.g., "myBreakpoint" = myBreakpoint). It's easy to forget that computers are not like us. They work in a very different way than we do and are much slower at doing it. When you're working with an extensive program or something that's just taking too long to load up, you can use breakpoints to help speed up the process. A breakpoint is a point where you want execution to stop. It could be when your program runs out of memory or when the user clicks on an error message inside the program. Setting a breakpoint means that your code will run up until that point and then stop so that you can debug it. This is more efficient than stepping through code on a line-by-line basis because it allows all of the functions in your code to run at once instead of one at a time. When you set a breakpoint, you create an opportunity for the debugger to stop the execution of your code. The debugger will stop if the program reaches that line of code or its associated line number. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, when you are debugging an application with mixed-mode, native and managed code, setting a breakpoint on a system component will cause the debugger to stop responding and may even cause your program to crash. The common language runtime is essential to debugging your applications because it enables them to run on multiple platforms without being rewritten in each language. So, when you set a breakpoint on a system component that forms part of the runtime itself, it can cause the whole thing to crash—and that's not something you want!