BOSaNOVA Joins PCI Security Group

October 16, 2007 Alex Woodie

BOSaNOVA, a provider of thin client and security solutions for System i shops, has joined the PCI Security Vendor Alliance, an industry group devoted to helping members understand and comply with the new Payment Card Industry (PCI) data security standards, the company announced last week.

PCI has become one of the most feared (and respected) data security regulations enacted over the past couple of years. Unlike Sarbanes-Oxley, which has vague requirements for IT and affects only public companies, PCI introduced very specific minimum requirements that all parties to credit card transactions–including merchants, software makers, and device manufacturers–must meet in order to protect the security of their customers’ credit card information. And unlike the government enforcement that may (or may not) ever come with SOX, PCI is controlled by private bodies–namely Visa and MasterCard –who aren’t afraid to take swift and ruthless action to get what they want.

PCI interests BOSaNOVA because the company has been moving into the security software and hardware space over the last year. While the company may still be best known for its Twinax controllers and thin client computers, BOSaNOVA is also now selling the iSecurity suite of i5/OS security software from Raz-Lee Security, and the Q3 and Q3i backup encryption appliances, which is based on technology it OEMs from the English company DISUK.

“Keeping cardholder data safe should be the responsibility of every organization that holds this sensitive data,” says Martin Pladgeman, president of BOSaNOVA, which is based in Phoenix, Arizona. “We joined the PCI Security Vendor Alliance to help organizations find easy ways of keeping that data safe.”

BOSaNOVA’s Q3 backup encryption appliance will have the biggest impact on any PCI remediation plans of its customers. “Our [Q3] solutions provide companies with an encryption option that’s strong, simple, and has little effect to current backup procedures,” Pladgeman says.

The PCI Security Vendor Alliance was formed earlier this year to address PCI concerns. Other System i vendors that are members of the PCI Security Vendor Alliance include nuBridges and Patrick Townsend & Associates.