Kyte Consultants Ltd has become the first Maltese company to be validated as a qualified security assessor company by the payment card industry Security Standards Council in the US.

This means that payment gateways, processors and merchants no longer need to acquire the services of an overseas firm to be certified as being payment card industry data security standard compliant. This will result in considerable savings on fees and expenses.

Representatives of the major card brands, such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discovery and JCB, had developed specific standards for companies that process, store or transmit credit card data.

The standard is called the Data Security Standard and all companies who handle credit card data had to comply with this standard once the implementation of the standard became mandatory.

It then became necessary for the Security Standards Council to validate companies that are qualified to certify merchants and payment processors as being compliant to the standard.

The directors of Kyte had to undergo a lengthy and rigorous application process, overseas training, and satisfy very stringent and extensive insurance requirements before being validated. The latter requirement proved to be the biggest challenge of all, but it too was finally satisfied.

Kyte Consultants Ltd was added to the list of qualified security assessors and they are now able to provide their services throughout Europe, including Malta.

Alan Alden and Trevor Axiak, the firm's directors said that, in their short period of time as an IT audit and security-focused company, this was definitely their hardest earned but proudest achievement.

They said they are confident that local companies will utilise their services as it will be more convenient and less costly for them than hiring an overseas firm with the same credentials as Kyte.