If you work in IT and are not focused solely on the desktop side (systems, network, security, admin, management…) then you really have to be aware of what PCI DSS is and where it may or may not be going. Anton has posted a link to this week’s Congressional hearing on PCI along with various links and reactions to it. I suggest at least skimming it to get an idea of what happened, even if it does feel like watching C-SPAN during summer vacation.

Here’s a really brief itinary of what happened in case you want to skip around (heh, and what I sent my boss).

Gov’t: Chairwoman Clarke reads a prepared statement
Gov’t: Chairman Thompson reads a prepared statement
-recess for about 30-40 minutes-
Gov’t: Rita Glavin from DoJ reads statement and answers some questions

Witnesses/Panel statements in order:
PCI Council: Bob Russo
VISA: Joseph Majka
Merchant: Michael Jones (CIO Michael’s Stores)
Merchant: Dave Hogan (CIO National Retail Federation)

Followed by questions for the group. (starts with about 22 minutes left)

If nothing else, at least skip out to the final 20 minutes of questions.