Find out why becoming PCI conformant is essential to your company, your employees, and your customers.
With the rise in security breaches comes the increase in the number of rules and changes for that of PCI DSS. For many businesses, being PCI compliant is considered an unnecessary burden and the penalties breached businesses face for failing to comply seems to increase that anger.
So , what’s the significance of PCI’s DSS? What’s the reason businesses should be concerned about getting PCI compliance? Is there any advantage of being compliant PCI DSS? We think so.
PCI compliance Definition
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a written standard, created by the major card manufacturers and maintained through the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). It is the PCI DSS contains technical requirements that protect and secure card data in processing, handling, storage, and transmission. Any business that handles payment card data regardless of their size or the method of processing used, must follow these requirements and be PCI compliant.
Secures business data
It’s essential to protect the data of your business as well as your employees. Although you may be taking care of physical security in your business, are you dedicating enough time to secure your information digitally? Between malware threats, remote-access attacks, and even social engineering. It’s vital to take the appropriate precautions to keep your computer, networks, and servers secured.
The entire purpose of PCI’s DSS has been to protect the card information from hackers and thieves. By following this standard you can keep your information secure, avoiding costly data breaches and protecting your employees and customers.
Enhances customer confidence
Would you visit a business if you knew it was likely your credit card information might be stolen? It’s probably not.
The confidence of your customers can affect the extent to which your financial year is profitable or not. It is less likely that customers will invest in your company in if they’re not confident in the fact that your data is safe. Two-thirds of US adult consumers wouldn’t visit any business following a breach. If you are breached or if your customers aren’t convinced of the security of your company, you could lose your business.
Getting PCI compliant and promoting this to your customers shows your customers that you’re dedicated to security and making every effort to ensure their data is safe. It provides you (and you) some security.
Guard your clients
Your customers trust you with the details of their credit cards as they conduct transactions within your business. If your business is breached you’re not the only one that suffers. Client’s card information needs to be protected by your company. You are responsible for keeping your clients’ data secure while on your desk.
Remember that if you do not protect your customer’s information, you could be subject to fines and lawsuits, particularly if you falsely claimed to that your business was safe.
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Offers a security standard
PCI DSS PCI DSS provides a baseline of security requirements to help businesses know what to do and how to get started on their security strategy.
Many companies we’ve spoken to aren’t even sure what to do about information security. Some may think simply locking the doors of their businesses is enough, others may not realize the necessity of securing their data. The goal is to reduce data breaches and ensuring that you follow the 12 requirements provides a solid foundation.
The PCI DSS provides a standard that every company can and must adhere to. What’s important is that the standard does have specific guidelines for different businesses that are based on the size, type, and method for storing card information, and more.
It helps you keep away from lawsuits and fines.
Should you get breached, not only will you be liable for the loss of data, but you may face lawsuits and fines from other companies and customers.
A great example of this is the Wyndham Hotel breach. After being breached three times, Wyndham Hotel was sued by the Federal Trade Commission because they had falsely said they were secure following each breach. The suit was resolved with the form of a settlement, however it illustrates the potential consequences can be incurred in the case of a data breach.
Other fines can include customer lawsuits, third-party lawsuits, government fines brand-name fines for cards, and many others.
If you’re PCI compliance, you’ll cut down on these fines as well as reduce the amount of lawsuits or risk your business may face.
Reduces the costs of a data breach
Data breaches could result in a significant loss of both financial loss and customer confidence. The cost is the replacement of debit and credit cards as well as paying penalties, and paying out compensations to compensate customers for what they have lost, not to mention audits and costs for investigation. The total amount adds up quickly.
For many businesses an incident with a breach of data could easily shut them down for good. Target was lucky to have enough funds and revenue to cover the expenses, however, most businesses aren’t that lucky.
Making sure you’re compliant with PCI DSS will help reduce costs by helping prevent data breaches in the first instance as well as avoid fines. If you can prove that you are compliant, your penalties won’t be as high as if you hadn’t made the effort.
Make sure you are PCI compliant!
Although many companies may not think that the PCI DSS as a necessity, it’s essential for both companies as well as their clients to follow the requirements. After all, they’re handling valuable information about their clients and should that information be stolen, it will have consequences that go far beyond a simple theft.
Remember that the PCI DSS is the bare minimum you need to be doing to prevent incidents that have occurred. It is essential to be in compliance to PCI DSS. You can build from there to address any issues that may be unique to your particular industry or.
All PCI DSS requirement is there since a breach could have been avoided having that security measure in place.
Take the extra time and money to ensure your business is complying with requirements of the PCI DSS standard. In doing this you’re ensuring the safety of your business, your employees, your clients, and your brand.