From: Wall Street Journal

By James Willhite

Data-security standards for credit-card transactions are getting their first update in three years in a bid to protect consumers and businesses from the growing threat of cyberattacks and clever thieves on the ground.

Just last week, for example, software developer Adobe Systems Inc. disclosed that hackers had stolen 2.9 million customer records, including encrypted credit- and debit-card numbers and their expiration dates.

The new security standards are scheduled for release Nov. 7 by the PCI Security Standards Council, a body set up by the big credit-card companies. Its new standards take effect Jan. 1, leaving companies a two-month window to bring their data systems into compliance. That could be costly for some of them.

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