Blackboard Inc., a provider of education technology, has released version 3.5 of Blackboard Transact that strengthens data and application security for campus commerce and card programs and enables institutions to process credit card transactions while meeting new industry standards.

Blackboard Transact is used by colleges and universities to support campus commerce and security management. The company’s newest release complies with the Payment Application Data Security Standard both in application architecture and written operating procedures. Release 3.5 received validation from Trustwave, a top security assessor company, and acceptance from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

With 3.5, institutions can host the application and process credit card transactions that complies with the PCI Data Security Standard well ahead of the July 2010 deadline for institutions to only use Payment Application-compliant applications in their payment environments.

The new release also introduces new capabilities to support enterprise-wide compliance policies and risk management and adds a range of new capabilities including improved database audit logging, user account and password features including forced complex passwords, limited repeat access attempts, account deactivation after 90 days of no use and completely re-written user documentation.

“Payment application security compliance is a very important initiative for our university,” said Stacie Gomm, associate vice president for Information Technology at Utah State University. “Our controller’s office is driving this initiative to ensure that all of our financial systems and processes are PCI compliant. The enhanced security features of the Blackboard Transact platform are an important step towards compliance for our campus-wide ID card solution.”