Middle East Payment Services (MEPS) - a leading, innovative payment services provider in the Middle East - has been re-elected to join the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) 2015-2017 board of advisors.

With this move, MEPS has become the first and only PCI SSC board of advisors representative from the Pan Arab region.

Under its capacity as board member, MEPS will provide directional and technical input on key matters related to maintaining the security standards that protect digital purchasing and payments.

Areas of focus include promoting PCI awareness and training in the region, new cybercrime tactics, public-private law enforcement information sharing, application development and merchant needs in developing economies, said a senior official.    

Additionally, MEPS is an active PCI SSC Participating Organization, thus positively contributing to countering cybercrime and to the global PCI security community at large.

"We are pleased to have been re-appointed to the PCI board for the upcoming two years, underscoring our efforts to improve payment data security and promote payment application security awareness to increase adoption of safe payment applications in the region," remarked MEPS chairman Dr Abdul Malik Al Jaber.

"At MEPS, we strive to advance security standards to higher levels of adoption and strength, particularly in light of today’s growing network security threats, payment fraud risks and data breaches. This being said, we cannot think of a more prominent and progressive organization than the PCI SSC to help us achieve our goals in this regard," he added.

Izdehar Safarini, the IT and operations deputy chief executive and primary representative for MEPS on the PCI board, said: "We look forward to actively contributing to and effectively raising awareness on secure payment service standards throughout the region, as well as to growing qualified local cadres that can help us achieve our goal."

PCI SSC general manager Stephen W. Orfei said: "Cybercrime is standing in the way of economic growth for all businesses, including start-ups in the developing world and multinationals. Criminal networks are well funded and highly motivated to steal our hard-earned money and our personal information."

"At the council, we are grateful to have some of the best economic and security minds in the world joining the Board to help tackle the challenge that cybercriminals present," he added.-TradeArabia News Service