For businesses accepting credit cards, PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) Compliance is another requirement of owning a business today; no different than the need to have a business license or Tax ID.
The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is a result of collaboration between Visa and MasterCard and others to create common industry security requirements in order to help prevent fraud and identity theft. Without proper safeguards in place, information passed through the Visa/MC payment system can be extremely vulnerable to internal and external compromises.
There are some steps you can take to reduce your organization’s risk against the exposure to fines, fees and penalties associated with noncompliance.
Ensure that any cardholder data that you retain, whether in hard copy or in electronic format, is appropriately stored.
Do not store any sensitive authentication data, which is defined as the full magnetic strip data, PIN and Card Security Code (CVC2/CVV2/CID).
Complete the appropriate (SAQ) self assessment questionnaire.
In order to help Merchant Clients achieve compliance with this security standard, we have partnered with an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) by the PCI Security Standards Council.
All Merchants are required by their processing agreement to be compliant with the PCI data security standard. You can find more information at: