Friday, September 7, 2012

PCI Compliance is Important for Business

By John Corey


If you are a merchant who accepts credit or debit cards you must be PCI compliant. If you are not then you risk being de-certified and will have to stop accepting this method of payment. Security is a high priority and concern for consumers when paying for things with their credit cards. Customers do not want information being transmitted about them on an open internet. With millions of transactions taking place every year fraud prevention and PCI compliance is becoming more of a concern. Small vendors who have not prepared may lose the ability to accept credit cards if they do not implement PCI compliance.

According to the PCI Security Standards Council, there are 12 PCI compliant requirements that meet a variety of security goals. These goals are: Building and maintaining a secure network, protecting card holder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, implementing strong access control measures and maintaining an information security policy. Here's your guide to the four different levels of PCI compliance as mandated by the major payment card brands, Visa and Mastercard, as well as action items for each.

Being PCI compliant means you are protecting the information about your customers and their payment information. You need to have your computer systems restricted as to who can access them. If you have remote locations or users logging in there needs to be more than one method of authenticating them other than a password. Encryption of your data if it is transmitted over the internet is paramount. While most big business have already implemented these practices many small businesses have not. The amount of paperwork and costs may be what has prevented the smaller businesses from coming on board. However, this is no longer a choice if you want to continue to accept credit card payments.Being PCI compliant means you are protecting the information about your customers and their payment information. You need to have your computer systems restricted as to who can access them. If you have remote locations or users logging in there needs to be more than one method of authenticating them other than a password. Encryption of your data if it is transmitted over the internet is paramount. While most big business have already implemented these practices many small businesses have not. The amount of paperwork and costs may be what has prevented the smaller businesses from coming on board. However, this is no longer a choice if you want to continue to accept credit card payments.

This issue of compliance is done to protect the card holders and the banks from being liable when someone has illegally purchased something on one of the cards. If you are an online business then the system that you have must actually make sure that things are fully protected and that anyone is not supposed to be there is not able to get information. Further there has be special attention paid to anything that could make the company more vulnerable.

By narrowing down what level and type of merchant you are, you're well on your way to becoming PCI compliant! PCI compliance is very important to your business and for your customers. Don't take it lightly.




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