- Services
- Products
- Compliance
- Markets
- Insights
- About
Payments Security Course Description
This course provides an overview of evolving payment technologies, payment fraud, and methods to securely manage payments.
- Target Audience:
- Staff and students who are responsible for incoming and outgoing payments for events, fees, merchandise, or services.
- Business officers, reconciliation, refund management, accounts payable, or any staff who manage the movement of money.
- Course Length: Each micro-module is 8-12 minutes long. The flexible course structure is designed to allow organizations to assign specific modules to learners based on role and provide continued awareness throughout the year.
Payments Security Course Learning Objectives
Payment systems are among the most targeted attack surfaces in the modern enterprise. This course equips security and compliance professionals with the knowledge and practical skills needed to protect payment ecosystems from end to end.
This course helps your teams:
- Understand when and how revenue activities must be approved and follow institutional processes for accepting, managing, and monitoring payments to protect the institution, employees, and customers.
- Apply secure cash and check‑handling practices from receipt through deposit and reconciliation, including documentation, physical security, segregation of duties, and issue reporting.
- Recognize payment‑related risks and fraud indicators across cash, checks, electronic payments, and refunds, with emphasis on common higher‑education fraud schemes and red flags.
- Use institutional controls to prevent fraud and errors, including approvals, verification, separation of duties, dual authorization, and approved systems and platforms.
- Safely process electronic and emerging payment technologies by understanding how speed, third parties, and new tools (e.g., digital wallets, P2P, contactless payments) increase risk and how to mitigate them.
Payments Security Awareness Course Modules
Our Payments Security course is designed with micro-learning modules, making the content easier to retain.
-
Revenue Approval
This module provides an overview of how revenue activities are approved, managed, and monitored. Staff will learn why formal approval is required before accepting payments, what offices are typically involved, and how consistent processes protect the institution, employees, and customers from fraud.- Identify when an activity is considered institutional revenue
- Understand why approvals are required before collecting money
- Follow the standard approval and onboarding process
- Recognize fraud, compliance, and reputational risks
-
Cash Handling
This training module provides faculty, staff, and student employees with the knowledge and awareness required to securely handle cash and cash‑equivalent transactions. It covers risk awareness, organizational requirements, security practices, documentation standards, and reconciliation procedures.- Explain why proper cash handling is critical
- Ensure all employees understand safe, compliant, and consistent cash‑handling practices.
- Identify common risks in incoming and outgoing cash transactions
- Recognize red flags for fraud, theft, or policy violations
- Protect organizational assets, reduce opportunities for theft or error, and maintain public trust.
- Comply with policy, auditing requirements, and relevant regulatory expectations
-
Check Handling
This module provides an overview of proper check handling practices from the moment a check is received, through storage, deposit, and reconciliation. Learners will review common check fraud risks and red flags and apply physical security and segregation of duties requirements, as well as learn when and how to report issues or suspected fraud.- Describe the approved steps for receiving, endorsing, storing, and depositing checks
- Recognize common check fraud risks and red flags
- Apply physical security and segregation of duties requirements
- Know when and how to report issues, including lost checks, discrepancies, or suspected fraud
-
Payment Fraud Examples in Higher Education
Due to the complex environments within higher education with decentralized departments, student trust, and high transaction volumes, colleges and universities often experience payment fraud. This module provides an overview of common payment fraud examples within higher education and how to identify red flags.- Recognize common payment fraud schemes in higher education environments
- Identify behavioral and transactional red flags
- Understand how and when to respond
- Review basic controls like separation of duties to reduce fraud risk
-
Common Payment Fraud Scenarios Review
As a follow-up to the previous module, learners will step through real-world scenarios and learn to identify red flags and recommended courses of action.- Apply a consistent decision process to payment and refund requests that feel urgent or unusual
- Differentiate “good customer service” from control bypasses that increase fraud and compliance risk
- Demonstrate appropriate escalation steps and documentation expectations across common campus scenarios
- Identify which internal controls are being tested in each scenario
-
Electronic Payments
Electronic payments are transactions completed without physical cash or checks, typically through digital systems. This training module reviews common electronic payment types, evolving trends, and increasing risks.- Identify common electronic payment types used in higher education
- Explain how speed, third-party platforms, and expanded access can increase operational risk
- Recognize major electronic-payment fraud patterns
- Use verification, dual approval, and approved systems to prevent unauthorized electronic payments
-
Evolving Payment Technologies
Consumers and students increasingly expect quick, convenient, and secure ways to pay for tuition, housing, campus services, and online purchases. Evolving payment technologies, like digital wallets and contactless payments, offer quick payment options, but don’t come without risk. This training module helps staff understand these evolving payment technologies and related risks.- Describe emerging payment methods, including digital wallets, P2P transfers, and contactless/QR payments
- Explain why certain technologies increase risk
- Identify common scams involving evolving technologies
- Apply safe practices, verify requests, and report suspicious activity
-
Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering
While colleges and universities are not banks, they frequently process financial transactions that can be targeted for money laundering, fraud, or misuse of funds. This module builds awareness of Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) concepts, focusing on what staff should recognize, document, and escalate.- Understand the purpose of the Bank Secrecy Act and AML rules
- Recognize how money laundering risks can appear in payments
- Identify AML‑related red flags in student, vendor, donor, and research transactions
- Apply institution‑approved controls when processing payments
- Know when and how to escalate concerns
Explore our other courses
Explore our full course library to find training that fits your needs, from security awareness and compliance essentials to specialized topics designed to support your role and responsibilities. Whether you’re looking to strengthen your cybersecurity posture, stay up to date with industry regulations, or broaden your knowledge, we’ve got you covered.
Related Products and Services
Make Your Team Your Best Fraud Defense
Equip your team with the knowledge and skills to protect payment systems, achieve compliance, and stay ahead of evolving threats.
Payments Security Training Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. PCI DSS requires organizations to train employees on its requirements and best practices for handling cardholder data securely. Security awareness training is a mandatory control, and is not optional. Gaps in training are a leading cause of breaches.
Annual training satisfies the minimum PCI DSS requirement, but regular training and updates are essential given the ever-increasing pace and evolution of fraud and breach techniques. Training should be updated annually to cover emerging threats or major regulatory changes, like PCI DSS version updates, that take effect.
The most prevalent threats include card skimming, phishing attacks targeting payment credentials, man-in-the-middle attacks, SQL injection targeting payment databases, and insider fraud. Ransomware targeting financial systems is also a growing concern.
Anyone in your organization who touches payment data, systems, or processes should complete payment security training.
This includes security analysts, compliance officers, risk managers, IT and network administrators, finance and accounts payable teams, software developers building payment applications, and senior leadership responsible for governance and risk oversight. PCI DSS requires that all personnel with access to cardholder data receive regular security awareness training.
Executives and board members are high-value targets for fraud tactics, like business email compromise (BEC) and wire transfer fraud. Beyond personal risk, leadership sets the tone for security culture across the organization. Understanding payment security at a strategic level helps leaders make informed decisions about risk investment and compliance governance.
Yes, and it's often overlooked. Third parties with access to your payment environment extend your risk surface. PCI DSS requires that vendor access be managed and that third parties acknowledge their responsibility for securing cardholder data. Training contractors on your security policies and expectations is essential before granting system access.
Effectiveness can be measured through pre- and post-training assessments, phishing simulation results, audit findings, reduction in security incidents, and employee confidence surveys. Organizations should track these metrics over time and use them to refine training content and delivery, particularly after a near-miss or actual security incident.