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PCI-DSS Compliance

What is PCI-DSS?

PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a security standard set in 2004 by Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services, JCB International and Amex. The compliance plot aims to secure credit and debit card transactions against data theft and fraud, directed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC).

While the PCI SSC has no legal right to constrain compliance, it is needed for the businesses that process credit or debit card payments. PCI certification is also the best way to safeguard sensitive data and information, thereby building long-lasting and trusting relationships with their customers.

PCI-DSS Certification

PCI certification guarantees card data security at your business through a set of regulations established by the PCI SSC. These include several usually known best methods, such as:

  • Installation of firewalls
  • Encryption of data transmissions
  • Use of anti-virus software

Plus, businesses must limit access to cardholder data and monitor access to network resources.

PCI compliant security provides an estimable asset that notifies customers that your business is secure to transact with. Conversely, both in monetary and reputational terms, the cost of non-compliance should be enough to convince any merchant to take data security seriously.

A data breach that reveals sensitive customer information is likely to have severe consequences on an enterprise. A violation may result in penalties from payment card issuers, lawsuits, diminished sales and a critically damaged reputation.

After experiencing a breach, a business may have to discontinue accepting credit card transactions or be forced to pay higher subsequent charges than the initial security compliance cost. The investment in PCI security procedures goes a long way toward ensuring that other aspects of your commerce are secure from malicious online actors.

PCI DSS Compliance levels

PCI compliance is classified into four levels, based on the annual number of credit or debit card transactions a business processes. The division level determines what an enterprise requires to do to endure compliance.

Level 1: Fits to merchants processing more than six million real-world credit or debit card transactions yearly. Administered by an authorized PCI auditor, they must go through an internal audit once a year. Plus, once a quarter, they must submit to a PCI scan by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV).

Level 2: Fits merchants processing between one and six million real-world credit or debit card transactions yearly. They're exacted to complete an assessment once a year, practising a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). Plus, a quarterly PCI scan may be necessary.

Level 3: Fits merchants processing between 20,000 and one million e-commerce transactions yearly. They must perform an annual assessment practising the relevant SAQ. A quarterly PCI scan may also be demanded.

Level 4: Fits merchants processing fewer than 20,000 e-commerce transactions yearly or those that process up to one million real-world transactions. An annual assessment using the relevant SAQ must be performed, and a quarterly PCI scan may be required.

PCI DSS requirements

The PCI SSC has described 12 requirements for handling cardholder data and maintaining a secure network. Divided between six broader goals, all are mandatory for an industry to become compliant.

Secure network

  • Firewall configuration must be installed and maintained
  • System passwords must be unique (not vendor-supplied)

Secure cardholder data

  • Stored cardholder data must be safeguarded
  • Transmissions of cardholder's data over public networks must be encrypted

Vulnerability management

  • Updated Anti-virus software must be used
  • A safe systems and applications must be developed and preserved

Access control

  • Cardholder's data access must be confined to a business need-to-know basis
  • Every employee with computer access must be assigned a unique ID
  • Physical access to cardholder's data must be confined

Network monitoring and testing

  • Access to cardholder's data and network resources must be tracked and monitored
  • Security systems and processes must be frequently tested

Information security

  • A policy dealing with information security must be preserved

Penalties for non-compliance

PCI is not, in itself, a law.

The credit card companies often do not directly handle payment processing functions themselves but rely on third-party processors to control the transactional services.

The credit card companies, at their volition, are the ones who impose fines to the merchant's bank (or Acquirer) and can range between $5,000 – $100,000 per month for PCI compliance violations.

On top of penalties that originate from the credit card companies, merchants may be subject to additional bank penalties.

What's feasibly even worse is that the bank or processor may need the merchant to move up a compliance level if they are violated, making the adherence requirements all the more onerous on the merchant moving forward.

Fines are not openly discussed nor widely advertised, but they can be disastrous to a business.

It is crucial to be aware of your credit card merchant account agreement(s), which should thoroughly outline your exposure.

Benefits of being PCI compliant

Conform to PCI-DSS looks like a daunting task, at the very least. The maze of standards and issues looks like a lot to manage for large organizations, let alone smaller companies. Still, compliance is becoming more critical and may not be as troublesome as you assume, especially if you have the right equipment.

According to PCI SSC, there are significant benefits of compliance, especially considering that failure to comply may result in severe and long-term consequences. For example:

  • PCI Compliance indicates that you have a secure system, and your customers can trust you with their sensitive payment card data; trust leads to customer confidence and repeats customers.
  • PCI Compliance enhances your reputation with acquirers and payment brands – just the partners your business requirements.
  • PCI Compliance is an open-ended process that aids in preventing security violations and payment card data theft in the present and the future; PCI compliance means you are contributing to a global payment card data security solution.
  • As you try to adhere to PCI Compliance, you're better prepared to conform to additional regulations, such as HIPAA, SOX, and others.
  • PCI Compliance adds to corporate security strategies (even if only a starting point).
  • PCI Compliance likely leads to advancing IT infrastructure efficiency.

PCI compliance & payment gateway

While choosing a payment gateway such as Cogent, you don't need to be PCI compliant. We will take care of this as well as payments and data security. Even if the data is entered on your website, it will be protected and encrypted by the provider. There are numerous things to consider while selecting a payment gateway, but you want to select the one with the highest level of PCI compliance to ensure payments processed on your page will be better secured. Make a wise decision and give your customers peace of mind.

One of the essential suggestions is if you don't need cardholder data, don't store it. Cogent uses advanced technologies, such as tokenization, so you can be confident that sensitive data won't touch your server.

When you get involved in an online business, security is an important issue. You need to do every possible thing to decrease the risk of payment and data fraud that could damage your brand's reputation. The data breach is a severe problem, and it could cause a loss of sales, and customers will never return to your site.

With Cogent, you don't need to be PCI compliant; we deal with your bank on your behalf.

At last, you can see being PCI compliant has a lot of benefits. It's vital to your customers' security and affects your business reputation.