Network World — The PCI Security Standards Council has announced that the nomination period for election to the 2011-2013 PCI SSC Board of Advisors is now open.

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Another news release right? Wrong. This one is important to you and anyone who accepts, stores, processes or transmits credit card data. That probably includes your organization, too.

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You see, the PCI Standards are not created in a vacuum. Feedback is important and you may not know how much the Board of Advisors helps to shape the entire agenda of the council.

The board consists of 21 advisers who are located globally. Representatives come from every section of the payment process: from financial institutions (acquirers and issuers); payment processors; merchants (retailers, airlines); and others (technology vendors, industry associations, service providers). The more cross-industry and global involvement in this process, the wider the perspectives and input reflected in the development of the standards and the council's resources.

We rely heavily on our participating organizations and critically on our Board of Advisors for industry input from the front lines. These people help us and the other organizations better understand and implement Version 2.0 of the standards and we frequently garner their feedback throughout this process.

In fact, they often go beyond this and suggest new approaches and processes for us to take to help increase education efforts around the standards and provide you with critical guidance.

The Internal Security Assessor (ISA) training program, the Prioritized Approach, the Wireless Guidelines Informational Supplement, and the additional guidance on payments technologies like EMV and point-to-point encryption were all developed with the input of the current Board of Advisors.

We appreciate all of the contributions and industry perspectives the outgoing board has provided the council. Without the Board of Advisors and their leadership, we really would not have accomplished as much as we have, together over the past two years. Now is your time to be a leader in your industry and advise and support the council. We are encouraging all to take advantage of this opportunity to get involved and represent your unique industry by running for board or nominating for the board.

This is a way for you to actively steer the agenda and direction for the council. More information on the nominations and election process can be found on our Web site. Also, if you're not yet a Participating Organization, you can find more about joining here as well. I look forward to meeting with the new Board of Advisors soon after the election and working together with them and the PCI community in 2011 to continue to develop and maintain strong security standards for the protection of cardholder data.

The nominating process closes on Feb.25.

The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum, launched in 2006, that is responsible for the development, management, education, and awareness of the PCI Security Standards, including the Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS), and PIN Transaction Security (PTS) Requirements.

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