GERMANTOWN, Md., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- In an informal survey of restaurant executives attending Hospitality Magazine's 2007 MURTEC tradeshow, Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) discovered that four out of five executives surveyed believed that their companies had made significant progress toward PCI compliance by addressing their point-of-sale and back- office systems. However, the vast majority had yet to achieve full end-to-end network PCI compliance.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was developed jointly by VISA and MasterCard in 2004, just when identity theft incidents first gained media exposure. The standard was intended to assure customers that their bankcard transactions would be secure from identity theft at the point of sale, over the Internet, on the phone, or even through the mail.

In today's economy, the biggest threat to a retailer's reputation is customer identity theft by hackers and ever more sophisticated organized crime attacks. Security breaches damage the customers' trust in online or electronic transactions with the retailer. The financial impact is wide-reaching-end users, retailers, and even credit card issuers are bearing the brunt of fraudulent charges by identity thieves.

While the majority of respondents were not fully compliant, nearly all of those surveyed indicated they were familiar with PCI compliance and actively working to achieve it. Nearly 100 percent acknowledged that PCI compliance was important to their business.

"There is clearly both awareness and urgency at the national brand management levels, but the industry still needs to ensure that merchants, including franchisees, understand that PCI compliance is more than protecting their point-of-sale systems," said Douglas Medina, Hughes senior director of enterprise marketing. "Complete end-to-end compliance-including data, point- of-sale devices, networks, physical security, etc.-is the responsibility of all individual merchants regardless of size or number of transactions they process per year."

Hughes can offer fully PCI DSS-compliant network services from the retailer's remote store LAN to the retailer's credit card authorizer from a Network Operation Center (NOC) that is also fully compliant with the stringent PCI DSS requirements.

Hughes' has written a white paper on PCI compliance and how a service provider can help retailers achieve end-to-end compliance. A copy of the PCI white paper can be obtained at http://www.enterprise.hughesnet.com/ .

The Hughes survey consisted of written responses by 62 restaurant executives who visited the Hughes exhibit while attending Hospitality Magazine's 2007 MURTEC tradeshow.

About Hughes Network Systems

Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES) is the global leader in providing broadband satellite networks and services for large enterprises, governments, small businesses, and consumers. HughesNet(TM) encompasses all broadband solutions and managed services from Hughes, bridging the best of satellite and terrestrial technologies. Hughes has shipped more than 1.2 million systems to customers in over 100 countries. Its broadband satellite products are based on the IPoS (IP over Satellite) global standard, approved by the TIA, ETSI, and ITU standards organizations.

Headquartered outside Washington, D.C., in Germantown, Maryland, USA, Hughes maintains sales and support offices worldwide. Hughes is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hughes Communications, Inc. . For additional information, please visit http://www.hughes.com/ .

Hughes and HughesNet are trademarks of Hughes Network Systems, LLC.

CONTACT: Judy Blake of Hughes Network Systems, LLC, +1-301-601-7330,
jblake@hns.com ; or Donna Armstrong of Brodeur, +1-202-775-2650,
dtaylor@brodeur.com , for Hughes Network Systems, LLC

Web site: http://www.hns.com/
http://www.enterprise.hughesnet.com/
http://www.hughes.com/