Payment-card security rules that keep customer credit and debit card information from falling into the wrong hands are becoming a contentious issue as debate over anticipated

Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards and their impact heats up.

In addition to the dozen rules for network security that comprise today's PCI Data Security Standard 1.1, the PCI Security Standards Council — which represents Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover — anticipates expanding requirements next year that could relate to wireless use as well as web-application security.

The Council's general manager Bob Russo says the organisation is devising new standards for how to design and evaluate any web-facing business applications for credit-card processing as well as security rules for wireless.