What is PCI compliance?

PCI is the acronym for Payment Card Industry. The PCI Data Security Council, an organization founded by the credit card companies (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB® International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa), requires merchants to meet various security standards. Failure to meet the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) puts your business at risk for fraud as well as fines from the credit card companies, which could revoke your ability to accept card-based payments.

Here’s what every business owner should know about PCI compliance:

1.  Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. Using processing hardware/software that meets the PA-DSS helps you safeguard your customer data and your business.

2.  Your merchant service provider can tell you whether your point-of-sale system meets the PA-DSS. If it doesn’t meet security standards, you must immediately update your terminals and/or processing applications.

3.  Failure to meet PA-DSS regulations can result in significant fines for your business. Depending on the violation, fines range between $5,000 and $10,000 per month per location.

To learn more about PCI compliance, visit the PCI Data Security Council website:

www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pa_dss.shtml

Tags: Credit Card Fraud, Credit Card Processing, credit card security, Credit Card Terminal, credit cards, Discover, MasterCard, Merchant Account, PCI Compliance, Visa

This entry was posted on April 15, 2010 at 4:45 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in PCI Compliance by tailoredtrans 1 Comment