PCI Compliance Overview

As a merchant that processes customer credit and debit cards, you accept the responsibility of keeping transactions and sensitive data secure in your business environment.  The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is in place to provide guidelines on how credit card information should be handled and what security measures should be implemented to protect your business.  The PCI standard identifies 12 requirements (and many sub-requirements) that must be addressed to help businesses such as yours minimize data breaches and credit card security problems.  This also provides assurance to financial providers/acquiring banks that require businesses to become compliant.

Why Become Compliant?

Regardless of the size of your business, as the risk owner, you have a fiduciary and legal obligation to protect cardholder data at your business. You must also validate your compliance on a regular basis to show that the security measures you have taken are effective. While the type of validation varies based on the number of card transactions you process each year, all merchants are required to comply with the PCI Data Security Standard.

Compliance helps:

• Reduce risk of fines and penalties
• Avoid losing the ability to process payment cards
• Protect against loss of business due to a security breach
• Provide peace-of-mind that you are protecting your business and your customers
• Protect brand integrity

Remember, compliance is an ongoing process. You are only one change away from being non-compliant!

Contact us today for a free PCI Consultation!