PCI Compliance Standards Secure Cardholder Data

By Josie Lynn


The PCI Compliance standards or Payment Card Industry Compliance standards are security standards for businesses that deal with credit and debit cards. The pci compliance standards were created to increase controls around the card holders so as to reduce credit card fraud. Validation is done by Quality Security Assessor on a yearly basis. This is done to handle large volumes of transactions by the different organizations.

The objective of PCI Compliance is to build and maintain a secure network. This is being performed by maintaining a highly active firewall to protect the card holder's data. Passwords should be changed regularly, and default passwords as set by the company should not be used.

The pci compliance standards affect all merchant organizations no matter how many transactions they accomplish at their business. There are different merchant levels given by the pci compliance council to businesses. While these levels are based on how many transactions the company does, it is important to stress that no matter how many transactions are made, theses standards and rules still apply. Higher level merchants, like merchant 4 or above may have additional rules and regulations to follow. Any business that accepts or stores cardholder data must follow the pci compliance standards. It is very important, so don't overlook it.

Card holder data must be protected. All companies that accept cardholder data are required to keep it safe and secure. Encryption of the transmission of cardholder data across open networks is very important. A vulnerability management program should be set up and maintained by the company. Antivirus software should be installed on all systems and secure systems and applications should be maintained.

One important rule of the PCI compliance standards is that the access to card holder data should be restricted. Proper testing and monitoring of networks should be done and maintained. Tracking and monitoring all access to network resources and cardholder data also needs to be accomplished. Security systems need to be tested properly and frequently.




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