PCI is a half-baked "solution" to protecting cardholders, and in the end it's just an excuse to charge merchants more fees. The card brands (Visa, Mastercard,

PCI is a half-baked "solution" to protecting cardholders, and in the end it's just an excuse to charge merchants more fees. The card brands (Visa, Mastercard, etc..) work closely with acquiring banks, merchant service providers, security vendors, and everyone else thats getting a piece of the action. Every time one of these companies speaks to a merchant the PCI boogie man is brought up, and it results in higher costs for merchants. In the end its about shifting blame, and of course making more money. That being said it's a good thing there are security standards for cardholder data to prevent and lessen the impact of a breach. I just wish an independent group was overseeing it.