Rick Dakin, president and co-founder of Coalfire Systems, an independent auditor accepted by VISA to certify compliance for level one merchants and card processors said in order to validate compliance Coalfire audits the entire payment process system.

"We look at databases, applications, operating system, network, the people, and the processes."

Most analysts say that covers almost the entire high-tech industry. Even database designers such as IBM and Oracle will have to comply with VISA security standards.

Eddie Myers, executive vice president and general manager at PPI said it will affect the entire software industry.

"There are so many different places that this data [on the mag stripe] can get stored and compromised," Myers said.