A survey of 500 information technology professionals with responsibility to assure compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standard shows just over half find it "burdensome but necessary" in their organizations and about a third see it impacting their virtualized network environments in particular in the future.

Awareness of the intricacies of PCI compliance regulations is crucial for CIOs, BMC’s former CIO has warned.

The heads of seven business organizations sent PCI Security Standards Council General Manager Bob Russo a cry for help earlier this month, saying the recession is making it "increasingly difficult" for merchants to meet the requirements of the Payment Card Industry's Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).