Does your business accept credit cards? Whether you run an e-commerce store or simply accept cards at a retail location, then you need to make sure your business is PCI compliant. Ignoring PCI compliance can ruin your business as you’ll lose your ability to accept credit cards. Meeting the compliance isn’t difficult. Take a look at this quick guide to learn more.
PCI compliance refers to compliance with PCI DSS, which stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It’s a set of data security guidelines that are required by major credit card brands for a business to accept these cards. PCI DSS guidelines call for secure storage and transmission of credit card numbers and merchant information.
To be PCI compliant, you should ensure that all cardholder data that you transmit or store stays encrypted. This prevents it from being stolen by identity thieves. You should also restrict access to this data via computers or physical means. Keep everything updated, such as software, firewalls, and anti-virus software on all company computers. You also need to maintain a policy on security for all employees, and test all aspects of security regularly.
There are four levels of PCI compliance. The level your company needs is determined by the size of the company and how much credit card business is done in a year. The levels go from small businesses making fewer than 20,000 transactions to major corporations with a minimum of 6 million transactions per year. The security for each level is roughly the same, but the different levels determine how often a company’s security policy must be audited.
You can ensure PCI DSS compliance by auditing your company’s security periodically. Ezentria can help you find what to look for and how to fix any issues before they become a problem. Contact us today for more information on how PCI compliance will help your business.
