MISSISSAUGA — ACTA has renewed its partnership with ACCEL PCI to help Canadian travel agencies strengthen their security system and fight cybercrime.
Travel agencies are an easy target for cyberattacks due to weak security systems, says ACTA.
A document called ‘Baseline Cyber Security Controls for Small and Medium Organizations’ prepared by the Canadian Center for Cyber Security says organizations should follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for all Point-of-Sale (PoS) terminals and financial systems.
“Despite the amount of personal data handled by travel agencies – credit cards, of course, but also customer information, loyalty cards, sometime passport numbers, addresses, names, birthdays, travel plans and so on – it is still common to see inadequate security measures to protect the personal information of customers” says Christian Richard, President of ACCEL PCI. ACCEL PCI is a user-friendly portal that eases PCI DSS compliance and a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) for Visa and Mastercard.
ACTA recommends that travel agencies invest in information security tools such as PCI DSS compliance as recommended by the Canadian Center for Cybersecurity, to ensure proper procedures and employee training to protect the privacy and the security of their customer’s personal data and keep their business reputation safe.
Since November 2018 the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) has required that organizations report breaches to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) of Canada.
“ACTA recognizes that Travel Agencies need resources to fight cyberattacks – resources that are within reach both financially and in terms of information technology security literary,” says Heather Craig-Peddie, VP Advocacy and Member Relations ACTA.
“ACCEL PCI’s online platform was developed with small and medium sized businesses in mind. ACCEL PCI is also backed by Ubitrak, a Canadian company specializing in the travel industry and recommended by IATA to provide PCI DSS compliance services to the travel industry worldwide.”
PCI compliance is mandatory for IATA appointed travel agencies. ACTA members are eligible for a 20% savings using a promo code available in the Members Only section of ACTA.ca. Non-ACTA members are eligible to receive a 5% savings using the promo code Travel_Disc-2020 using this link.
