Accept Credit Cards? You Better Understand Payment Card Industry Compliance


Whether your company processes one credit card order a year or a thousand, if your business accepts credit cards, it's imperative that your IT staff understands payment card industry (PCI) standards and the importance of maintaining them.  PCI standards are mandatory and apply to any organization or business that stores, processes or transmits credit or debit card data.

There are 12 major PCI requirements (see the full listing at http://pcicomplianceguide.org), and even one violation equals an overall non-compliant status.  Worse yet is that each incident of non-compliance can result in sizeable fines and even revocation of card processing privileges - a death blow to businesses that depend on credit card payments for the bulk of their orders.
The payment card industry, made up of Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express, is cracking down on security when it comes to credit card processing, because of the risk; stolen or lost cardholder information opens the PCI industry up to intense scrutiny and serious legal ramifications.    
Consider that victims of credit card theft spend about 600 hours, generally spread out over years, recovering from the resulting damages.  So, yes, payment card industry security standards are serious business.   

That said, your IT department shouldn't be intimidated by meeting PCI requirements; in fact, odds are, if they've been maintaining your IT security according to standard best practices, you're company is in good starting shape.

That doesn't mean you should forgo the PCI guidelines checklist; you should most definitely double check and make sure all your I's are dotted and your t's are crossed.
PCI compliance shouldn't be taken lightly.

However, that doesn't mean PCI compliance, contrary to popular fear mongering, is hard.  It isn't - it's just not cheap, but professional level IT security typically isn't.  If you're going to do business accepting credit cards, you have to accept that maintaining top level IT security is a cost of doing business.  

So, if your business accepts credit cards, here's what you need to know:

  1. PCI compliance is not a suggestion; it is a requirement - you don't have a choice.  If you process payment cards, you're responsible for being PCI compliant.
  2. PCI compliance is achieved through standard IT security best practices, so make sure your company is operating under these auspices.
  3. You have to spend money to make money-you've heard this old adage countless times before, and when it comes to PCI compliance, it's the truth.  If you want to accept credit card payments, you have to meet the PCI compliance standards.  If doing so is too much work or costs too much money, go back to accepting money orders and check payments only; you don't have any other choice.
  4. Don't be a stranger to http://pcicomplianceguide.org.  It's a one-stop resource for learning everything you need to know about PCI compliance.

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Written by Stephein Reis - an IT enthusiasts and webmaster of several IT-related sites. Mr. Reis is both an avid writer and reader of desktop virtualization articles stating that he needs to be informed of current trends in technology to stay relevant.