PLDT data center gets int’l accreditation

PLDT Inc.’s VITRO data center in Makati City has secured international accreditation from credit card companies in protecting cardholder data, enabling the company to better cater to the data housing needs of businesses.

In a statement, PLDT unit ePLDT Inc. said the VITRO data center in Makati City recently received the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) Version 3.2 certification, an international accreditation given to merchants and service providers who passed the security standards for cardholder data protection.

PCI-DSS, the global data security standard created by a consortium of international credit card companies, applies to entities involved in the storage, processing, and/or transmission of cardholder data.

By complying with the PCIDSS, one is able to reduce vulnerabilities in the whole card processing ecosystem which includes point-of-sale devices, wireless hotspots, transmission of cardholder data to service providers, personal computers or servers, and systems operated by service providers and acquirers that maintain relationships with merchants that accept payment cards.

“The booming e-commerce market is fueling credit card transactions all around the world, which, at the same time, exposes risks to cardholders, banking institutions and enterprises involved in the process. Given that today’s cyber criminals are more intelligent and more sophisticated, traditional perimeter-based cyber security protocols are not enough to protect the business,” ePLDT chief operating officer Nerisse Ramos said.

With the certification, she said customers can rely on the company’s data center in Makati with confidence for critical applications and not worry about credit card fraud and other online threats which continue to evolve day by day.

VITRO Makati is ePLDT’s second data center to receive the PCI-DSS version 3.2 certification.

Last year, ePLDT’s data center in Pasig was certified for version 3.1 and was recently upgraded to 3.2.

The certification was given to the two data centers following an assessment based on established guidelines on physical space, data storage and security profiles.

At present, ePLDT’s VITRO Makati through its maximum capacity of 3,584 racks, is the largest data center facility in the country.

The data center in Makati is operated and maintained by professionals who are guided by ISO standards such as Quality Management System (ISO 9001:2008), Business Continuity Management System (ISO 22301:2013), Information Security Management System (27001:2013), IT Services Management System (20000-1:2011), and Environmental Management System (14001:2004).