PCI Compliance started back in 2004 when a number of the big box retailers had security breaches. Millions of credit cards were stolen and that’s when it was implemented.
The objective of PCI compliance is basically to ensure a safe credit card processing transactions and to mitigate fraud as much as possible. DSS stands for the data security standard which contains over 300 pages of different criteria that is used by PCI depending on how you currently accept cards and how many transactions you take a year.
Why PCI Compliance Is Important?
For most of the merchants we fulfill the requirement of the questionnaire that you fill out annually by saving your answers for the following year.
A third party company does PCI compliance for credit card payment processors by doing a scan of the system. PCI compliance can affect your business if you were to have a breach.
Did you know that if you accept credit cards with your business that you need to be PCI compliant? If you should get breached and some of the credit card information gets stolen you could be subject to significant penalties. A forensic investigation of the point of sale system, between 10 and 20,000 reimbursement for purchase made using stolen credit cards, replacement for stolen credit cards, $20 to $30 dollars per card, just a thousand cards would add up to $20 to $30,000 fines for non-compliance with PCI standards are up $500,000 with visa and up to $200,000 with Mastercard.
Running your business without being PCI compliant is like driving a car without insurance. The cost comes out to the price of a cup of coffee per day to work with a managed security services provider.
