The data security compliance company TrustWave Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that it has bought a company selling similar services outside the United States.
TrustWave, a Chicago company that does business under the name AmbironTrustWave, said it had purchased One-SEC Ltd. of London, which operates in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The deal closed Friday, but TrustWave did not give a price for the purchase.
TrustWave is to merge One-SEC with AmbironTrustWave Ltd., the U.S. company's London subsidiary.
The two companies provide services to help merchants comply with the Payment Card Industry data security standard. The standard, published by several of the top card associations, sets requirements for how merchants should keep card accound information secure.
"We're really seeing the adoption of PCI globally," Robert J. McCullen, the chairman and chief executive of TrustWave, said in an interview Wednesday. "The common language is the payment system."
Though chip cards, which are more secure than magnetic stripe cards, are used in many parts of Europe, this does not absolve merchants and acquiring banks from protecting their data, Mr. McCullen said. Chip cards' extra security only makes criminals come up with new and different scams to gain access to account information, he said.
The purchase of One-SEC "really triples the size of our company internationally," he said. "We've added people on the Continent and in Ireland and South Africa."
TrustWave is also looking to expand in Asia and may make a deal there in 2008, he said.
