PCI Compliance 101

PCI Compliance 101

If you deal with any cardholder information, then you need to be PCI compliant. Are you sure you’re not risking a $500,000 fine? Find out what you need to know about PCI compliance in our latest video.

Unlike industry-specific compliance regulations that state how healthcare clinics or legal firms need to handle sensitive data, PCI compliance covers an extremely wide range of businesses.

Any business that processes, stores, or transmits credit or debit card payments and payment information in any capacity is subject to strict PCI compliance standards which dictate how credit card data needs to be handled and the precautions that need to be in place to keep that data secure. Failure to meet those standards can have serious repercussions, from penalties and fines to legal action in the event of a data breach.

Discover more in our latest video:

What Is PCI Compliance?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) applies to your business if you handle cardholder information for debit, credit, ATM, e-purse, POS, and prepaid cards.

PCI requires card issuers and holders to retain an audit trail history for a time period that’s consistent with its effective use and legal regulations. It’s necessary to undergo PCI compliance auditing to ensure your customers’ data is protected during credit or debit card transactions.

If your business is noncompliant, banks and credit card institutions can impose fines anywhere from $5,000 to $500,000. Bank fines are based on the research they perform to remediate your noncompliance. Credit card institutions impose fines as a punishment for noncompliance, and they may enforce a timeline of increasing fines.

That’s why you need to be sure you’re PCI compliant.

The Biggest Threat To Your PCI Compliance

PCI compliance is a higher level of security and data governance that organizations have to follow. Compliance is complex, and there is a critical element of assessment and planning that needs to go into your compliance strategy.

In particular, you need to make sure your staff understands their role in your organization’s overall compliance efforts. It doesn’t matter which types of technical safeguards you have in place if your staff doesn’t know how to maintain compliance.

• Are you sure your staff knows how to maintain PCI compliance?
• What’s Your First Step To Take Towards Confident PCI Compliance?

First and foremost, businesses need to run a thorough assessment of their existing level data security and processes and identify gaps. By determining your current state of security and how it aligns with PCI compliance standards, you can identify what needs to be improved before your audit.

A PCI compliance audit is necessary to keep your business and your customers safe from a payment card data breach. PCI compliance auditing assesses your business’s point-of-sale (POS) system. A qualified security assessor (QSA) will determine whether or not your business is compliant with The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards by:

• Examining your system,
• Identifying vulnerabilities, and
• Preventing data from being compromised.

As there is no one fix it all solution for compliance, it’s important to identify the gaps and work with a professional team to address them —I.T. Matters will help.

I.T. Matters Will Manage Your PCI Compliance

As you can see, failing to manage compliance is expensive. That’s why you shouldn’t bother trying to oversee your compliance personally. You’re too important in your actual role at your business to split focus and risk overlooking something.

The I.T. Matters team will help, following our proven plan for compliance:

• A risk assessment to improve your data security.
• Expert consultation for staff training on security awareness so your employees have the information and skills they need to meet the latest PCI standards and regulations.
• Information about any vulnerabilities, and ranked by order according to their seriousness. This way, you can address the most important first.

Don’t put your compliance at risk — I.T. Matters’s team of PCI compliance experts are available to manage it for you

Ha Tran

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