1st Guard Corporation, a specialty insurer for long-haul truckers, recently implemented a monumental change in the way they store policyholder credit card information.
This change eliminates the storing of all credit card numbers onsite and drastically reduces [if not eliminates] the exposure to a security breach and the liability associated with it.

It is all too common these days to hear about companies that have lost hundreds of thousands of customer credit card numbers in a single devastating event. "1st Guard's priority is to protect our policyholders," commented Daniel Ribar, chief information officer at 1st Guard Corp. "People count on us to provide reliable insurance services and it is our duty to deliver just that," added Ribar.

For each customer that pays their premium electronically, only one primary card will be stored on file. 1st Guard will no longer store multiple credit cards for a single customer. This change immediately reduces the exposure to a security breach. Additionally, only the last four digits of the credit card with the expiration date will appear on the payment screen at 1st Guard. All sensitive numbers that make up the entire credit card will be stored at merchant services which are kept on file for a maximum of 90 days.

Ed Campbell III, chairman of 1st Guard Corporation stated, "The hacker stories on television have made everyone cognizant that security is a huge issue in daily business operations. 1st Guard took the initiative to make sure the best security measures are in place to protect our policyholder's financial information."