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The Forbidden Question: Are You Still Using A QSA?

Written by David Taylor
June 10th, 2009
The other day at a security conference on retail and PCI security issues, I was in a group of retailers and saw one retailer ask the other a deliciously revealing question: "Are you still using a QSA?" The entire question is nice, but it's the emphasis on the word "still" that makes it art. That's the killer word, as it was designed to make this other retailer feel small.

About a week earlier, at a different conference hundreds of miles away, GuestView PCI Columnist David Taylor witnessed a similar exchange, with a group of about eight retailers and only one said he was using a QSA. And that guy was clearly on the defensive, half-blaming his management for forcing him to still use one.

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Posted in IT Strategy/Industry, Payment Systems, Premium Content, Security/Fraud
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