To stay competitive in today’s business world, it is crucial to accept credit cards. However, credit card usage comes together with lots of challenges such as stolen data, fraud, and general mistrust in online credit card transactions.

To guarantee a safer environment, it is crucial to select the right VDS servers and follow PCI compliance. It doesn’t matter whether you have a small startup or a huge corporation, payment card industry compliance strategy should be followed in order to protect the credit card data. In this article, you will learn more about PCI compliance and whether it is so important for businesses.

What exactly is PCI?

PCI SSC where SSC stands for the Security Standards Council created some requirements back in 2006 which ensure that online businesses have the safest possible environment for their clients. Security Standard Council gives access to a diversity of support resources, tools, and frameworks so that companies can safely accept credit card payments.

Initially, this standard was related mainly to the merchants, but soon this was changed and expanded to encrypted transactions. Now, PCI is the main part of most companies’ security protocols.

PCI compliance helps to minimize the risks of fraud, excluding the chances of sensitive data leakage that guarantees the safety of the financial information of the clients. The unsecured sensitive personal information will sooner or later be stolen and used for various purposes including identity fraud.

Pluses of the PCI Compliance

Small organizations and startups might accept PCI compliance as a challenging task. There is such a faked idea that the list of regulations and rules is so long and there are no pluses for the tiny business, but is it not true? There are lots of benefits that come together with PCI compliance and most of them are tightly connected with the safety of cardholders.

To start from, PCI compliance is not something that you can either choose to follow or not. This is a mandatory thing, and because of some violations, businesses can even be fined. Those companies that don’t follow PCI compliance are more inclined to serious data leakage which can result in frauds and thefts. Just one data leakage or serious fraud that occurred because of the violation of PCI standards can lead to serious consequences specifically ones connected with reputation, clients’ loyalty, and public trust in general. The minimal consequences are connected with reputation problems, but the outcomes can be even more serious such as fines and lawsuits.  

The major requirements

PCI Data Security Standard consists of more than 70 base requirements, approximately 12 key ones, and nearly 400 test procedures. Here are a couple of the major ones:

–        Protection of the passwords. Usually, most modems and other similar systems have already default credentials and users prefer to use them. The default passwords are very easy to find online and hack the system in a matter of minutes. That’s why, it is offered to change all the standard passwords and regularly switch them.

–        Firewall for the better protection. The secure firewall configuration can tremendously influence the protection standard and in such a way businesses can also improve their online reputation.

–        Regular software updates. The importance of the antivirus is no longer a question, but you should not also forget to update it regularly for the better detection of the threats.

–        Full data protection. To protect sensitive card information from existing threats, all such information should be properly encrypted. Moreover, it is important to conduct regular checks of whether or not the needed information is encrypted.

–        Access restrictions. Only specific employees should have access to the card details of the clients. Not all people in the company should get access to sensitive information in case it is not a part of their responsibility.

–        Security tests. All the processes should be regularly tested for potential weaknesses, by doing so you will have a proactive approach and better security characteristics will help to deal with a diversity of vulnerabilities.

How to integrate PCI compliance into your business practice?

Each new version of PCI DSS has some new rules, so here are some steps to conduct everything properly:

–       Check the new requirements. Specify your business needs and decide what is the most appropriate way to relate it with PCI.

–     Regularly check the system for any risks and possible vulnerabilities.

–        Usage of the updated tools for better encryption and monitoring.

–        Training of your team. Inform your employees about the latest security approaches and recent standards.

Summing up  

The understanding of the payment security standard is a fundamental thing for any business owner. It is so important to get in touch with the latest approaches in the digital age and take a proactive position in everything you do. So visit PCI SSC website and get all the latest information about the recent practices.