The report - which is offered free until the end of January - also says that companies adopting PCI-DSS compliance can save up to 45% on their costs by adopting a best practice strategy.

The study, which is billed as providing year-over-year insights into the progress that affected organisations have made in achieving and sustaining compliance with PCI-DSS, found that adopting a best-in-class approach can halve a company's compliance costs.

On top of this, the report notes that best-in-class companies can divert the PCI-DSS compliance savings into other areas, such as sustainable programmes and continuous improvement.

According to the research firm, best-in-class companies were found to have reduced their deficiencies related to PCI-DSS compliance by 7.5% on a year-over-year basis, when compared to `laggards.'

The conclusions of the security analysis show how companies can reduce the scope of their PCI-DSS compliance, as well as `map and adapt' to better security practices.

One of the most interesting conclusions of the report is the need for managers to assign clear ownership of the PCI-DSS issues and so achieve better PCI-DSS efficiencies.