Premier annual event explores PCI compliance challenges facing higher education institutions
April 17, 2019 – Atlanta, GA – Bluefin, the leader in payment security technologies for higher education, healthcare, retailers and enterprises, announced today that the company will present at the Treasury Institute for Higher Education’s PCI DSS Workshop on PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE), May 6th – 8th.
The Treasury Institute for Higher Education promotes excellence in treasury and financial management for U.S. universities and colleges through developing educational programs and the sharing of best practices. The Institute’s annual PCI DSS workshop explores the unique PCI compliance challenges facing higher education institutions, while offering best in class sessions on how institutions can achieve and maintain compliance. This year’s opening General Session will be presented by Troy Leach, CISSP, CISA, Chief Technology Officer, PCI Security Standards Council.
Bluefin’s session, “The Evolution of PCI-Validated P2PE and Payment Security across the Higher Ed Campus,” will be presented by Eldred F. Garcia, PCIP, VP Security Solutions. The session will explore how PCI P2PE has evolved from a stand-alone solution to a network of providers, the vendors that offer validated solutions and the types of solutions available, and the costs and benefits of PCI P2PE. Mr. Garcia will also present four case studies on universities that use Bluefin’s P2PE solution across their campus, including in athletics, healthcare, ticketing and the Bursar’s office.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), in 2018 there were 76 data breaches in higher education that compromised over 1.4 million records.
“Higher education is a prime target for hackers because of the amount of student and alumni data they are collecting and processing,” said Greg Cornwell, Head of Global Sales, Bluefin. “With PCI-validated P2PE, payment data is immediately encrypted upon swipe, dip, tap or key in the payment terminal. This ensures that credit and debit card data does not reach the university’s system as clear-text, where it could be exposed in the event of a data breach. And only with PCI-validated P2PE solutions do universities and colleges get the benefit of reduced PCI compliance scope with the 33 question SAQ P2PE – saving them an enormous amount of time and money on compliance, especially when considering the multiple locations accepting payments across the campus.”
Bluefin currently provides their PCI-validated P2PE solutions to over 700 universities, colleges and higher education institutions across the U.S. Additionally, the company has partnered with major higher education software providers, including Blackbaud, Blackboard, Nelnet, NeuLion College, Paciolan, and more to enable PCI P2PE on the platforms of these partners.
“The Treasury Institute for Higher Education’s PCI DSS workshop is the premier forum for universities and colleges to learn about PCI, payment security, compliance and cybersecurity,” said Eldred F. Garcia, PCIP, VP Security Solutions. “It is truly an honor to be chosen to present our knowledge, experience and higher education case studies on Bluefin’s PCI P2PE solution.”
Learn more about Bluefin’s solutions for higher education, including a case study on PCI-validated P2PE with the University of San Diego (UCSD) Extension.