As a group, humans are a tough audience. Cruelly and quixotically, the more difficult and massive the task, the quicker we are to point out the shortcomings rather than praise the accomplishments.

In retail technology today, there are few efforts more monumental and difficult than attempts to regulate credit card security. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (known simply as PCI) is the industry’s best shot.

Please don’t get me wrong. There are plenty of issues with PCI deployment today. But let’s not be too quick to attack the very good for not achieving the unattainable perfection.