payment card industry fines and assessments insuring agreement

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of proprietary information security standards that have been promulgated for businesses that accept payment from the leading credit card issuers, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Coverage under this insuring agreement would apply under the following circumstances: A retailer reports that the personally identifiable information (PII) (including credit and debit card information) belonging to its customers was stolen by a hacker. An investigation reveals that the breach occurred because the retailer's computer system did not comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. In the event the retailer was fined $100,000 for failure to comply with applicable standards, this insuring agreement would cover the fines. Furthermore, if the retailer incurred costs to dispute the imposition of the $100,000 fine (because it felt that it did, in fact, comply with standards), this insuring agreement would cover those required defense costs.