Following recent high-profile thefts of consumer data, MasterCard and Visa are placing retailers under pressure to tighten the security of their consumer records, giving them until June 30 to comply with a new set of computer security standards, writes CNET. Retailers that don't comply with the Payment Card Industry, or PCI, data security standard may face penalties, including fines.

eCommerce Times reports that American Express, Diners Club and JCB Cards are also backing the standard, which requires Internet retailers to carry out a 12-step security audit. In extreme cases, online merchants could be banned from processing transactions using payment cards.

MasterCard is appointing vulnerability assessment firms to carry out the approval process. It has already announced that security software firm Qualys is its first automated compliance tester for the MasterCard Site Data Protection scheme, which uses the standard.