In the new, digital era of payment management and shopping, protecting customer data is a top priority. While the news may bring breaking headlines about stolen or lost data from large corporations, every business can take the steps necessary to secure sensitive data.
TL;DR
- PCI compliance is essential because it helps prevent data breaches, ultimately cultivating customer trust. When consumers have faith in your business and capabilities to protect their data, they’re more likely to shop with you.
- There are 12 requirements under PCI DSS, divided into six major categories. Each requirement plays a critical role in building a secure environment for payment processing.
- Failing to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard can have a number of severe consequences for a business. These include penalties, legal repurcussions, and the revocation of credit card processing privileges.
What is PCI Compliance?
PCI DSS stands for “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.” These standards are set by card brands like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express to ensure sensitive payment data is securely processed, transmitted, and stored. The PCI Security Standards Council determines and sets these security standards.
It’s important that merchants comply with PCI standards, as violating them can result in hefty fines. The PCI DSS applies to any business or organization that has anything to do with a cardholder’s data – transmitting, processing, or storing it. So how can your business stay PCI compliant? That’s where Stax comes in.
Why Is PCI Compliance So Important?
PCI compliance is essential because it helps prevent data breaches, ultimately cultivating customer trust. When consumers have faith in your business and capabilities to protect their data, they’re more likely to shop with you.
Most small business owners make the mistake of thinking that their business isn’t large enough for PCI compliance to matter to them. But this isn’t the case. Small businesses actually pose the highest risk because they don’t always have the resources to implement tight security measures. As such, they’re typically the ones that are scrutinized the most.
And when that happens, non-compliance can lead to many degrees of harm to any and all business owners.
The 12 PCI Compliance Requirements
There are 12 requirements under PCI DSS, divided into six major categories. Each requirement plays a critical role in building a secure environment for payment processing.
1. Install and Maintain a Firewall Configuration to Protect Cardholder Data
The first requirement emphasizes the need for a firewall to prevent unauthorized access to cardholder data. A firewall acts as the first line of defense between an organization’s internal network and external networks.
2. Do Not Use Vendor-Supplied Defaults for System Passwords and Other Security Parameters
Default passwords and settings provided by vendors are often publicly known and can be easily exploited by attackers. This requirement mandates that organizations change all default security settings, including passwords, immediately after installation. It also includes disabling unnecessary services and protocols that could expose vulnerabilities.
3. Protect Stored Cardholder Data
Organizations must protect stored cardholder data and other credit card information using encryption, masking, hashing, or other methods to make the data unreadable to unauthorized individuals. Data should only be stored if absolutely necessary and only for as long as required by business, legal, or regulatory needs. Additionally, sensitive authentication data must never be stored after authorization, even if encrypted.
4. Encrypt Transmission of Cardholder Data Across Open, Public Networks
When cardholder data is transmitted across open or public networks, there is a risk of interception by malicious actors. To mitigate this risk, all transmission of cardholder data must be encrypted using strong cryptographic protocols such as TLS (Transport Layer Security) or IPsec (Internet Protocol Security).
5. Protect All Systems Against Malware and Regularly Update Anti-virus Software or Programs
This requirement focuses on deploying anti-virus software on all systems commonly affected by malicious software. Anti-virus solutions should be regularly updated, configured to perform automatic scans, and capable of generating audit logs for ongoing monitoring. Regular updates help defend against emerging malware threats.
6. Develop and Maintain Secure Systems and Applications
Security vulnerabilities in applications and systems are common entry points for attackers. Organizations must develop and maintain secure systems and applications by implementing a process for identifying and addressing vulnerabilities. This includes applying security patches promptly, conducting regular vulnerability assessments, and maintaining secure coding practices throughout the development lifecycle.
7. Restrict Access to Cardholder Data by Business Need-to-Know
Access to cardholder data should be granted only to employees and third parties whose job responsibilities necessitate it. This requirement promotes a “least privilege” policy, ensuring that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data. Access controls should be clearly defined and implemented using role-based access control measures to ensure data protection.
8. Identify and Authenticate Access to System Components
All users must be uniquely identified before gaining access to any system components. This includes the use of unique IDs and strong passwords or multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods. Logging mechanisms should track user activities to ensure accountability and provide the ability to detect unauthorized access attempts or activities.
9. Restrict Physical Access to Cardholder Data
Physical access to sensitive data must be restricted to protect against unauthorized access, theft, or damage. This requirement mandates measures like access control systems, surveillance, badge systems, and physical barriers to protect the environments where cardholder data is stored or processed.
10. Track and Monitor All Access to Network Resources and Cardholder Data
To detect and respond to security incidents promptly, organizations must track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data. This includes logging mechanisms that provide visibility into who accessed what data and when. Logs should be retained for a minimum period and should be regularly reviewed to identify and respond to suspicious activities or potential breaches.
11. Regularly Test Security Systems and Processes
Regular testing of security systems and processes is crucial to maintaining a secure environment. This requirement includes conducting vulnerability scans, penetration testing, and intrusion detection system (IDS) monitoring. Regular testing helps organizations identify and remediate security weaknesses before they can be exploited by attackers.
12. Maintain a Policy That Addresses Information Security for All Personnel
A strong information security policy is vital for ensuring that all personnel understand and follow security practices. This requirement mandates that organizations develop, maintain, and disseminate an information security policy that covers all employees, contractors, and third-party users.
What Happens When Your Business Isn’t PCI Compliant?
Failing to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard can have a number of severe consequences for a business.
1. Financial Penalties and Fees
If your business isn’t PCI compliant, your processor will charge you a monthly fee for not being compliant with PCI DSS standards. It provides no value and only serves as a reminder that your processor has no proof that you’re a PCI-compliant business.
It gets worse: merchants that use a non-PCI certified provider can face class action lawsuits, fines of up to $10,000 per month, and $500,000 per incident. Plus, your ability to process credit card transactions may also be revoked if you are non-compliant.
2. Legal Repercussions
If a credit card data security breach occurs and the business is found to have used a non-PCI certified provider, they may face class action lawsuits from affected customers, banks, and credit card companies. These lawsuits can result in substantial legal fees, settlement costs, and potential damages that could reach millions of dollars. In addition, regulators or government entities may also impose additional fines or penalties.
3. Revocation of Credit Card Processing Privileges
If a business consistently fails to comply with PCI standards, the processor or acquiring bank may choose to terminate their merchant account.
For many businesses, especially those operating eCommerce, the ability to accept credit card payments is crucial to their operations. Without it, they may be unable to transact with customers, leading to a loss of revenue, decreased customer trust, and potentially forcing the business to close.
These results can devastate a business, so it’s crucial to make sure that your provider is not going to jeopardize your business.
How Do You Become PCI Compliant?
At a high level, becoming PCI compliant requires you to:
- Have a secure network and systems for processing payments
- Safeguard cardholder data
- Implement a vulnerability management program
- Enforce strong control access measures
- Monitor and test your networks regularly
- Have an information security policy
To achieve PCI compliance, businesses should follow a structured approach:
Step 1. Assess Your Current Compliance Status
Begin by assessing your current compliance status. This involves identifying and documenting all the ways your business handles cardholder data, including how it is collected, stored, processed, and transmitted. Determine the level of PCI compliance that applies to your business based on your transaction volume and payment processing methods.
Step 2. Complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire or On-Site Assessment
Depending on the size and nature of your business, you may be required to complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) or undergo an on-site assessment by a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). The SAQ is a series of questions that help you evaluate your compliance with PCI DSS requirements. Larger organizations or those handling a high volume of transactions may need to undergo an on-site assessment, where a QSA reviews your security practices and infrastructure.
Step 3. Remediate Identified Gaps and Weaknesses
Based on the results of your assessment, identify any gaps or weaknesses in your current security practices. Develop a plan to remediate these gaps to meet PCI DSS requirements. This may involve upgrading your network security, enhancing access controls, or investing in additional security tools.
Step 4. Implement Required Security Controls
This may include deploying firewalls, encryption technologies, anti-virus software, and access control measures for your Point-of-Sale (POS) software, your payment gateway software, and any other place your payment card data and sensitive information like card numbers and account data may be accessible. Regularly update and maintain these controls to ensure they remain effective against new threats.
Step 5. Maintain Compliance Through Continuous Monitoring and Improvement
Once you have achieved compliance, you must continuously monitor your security environment, regularly test your controls, and stay informed about evolving threats. Make compliance part of your organization’s culture by conducting regular training and awareness programs for employees and reviewing and updating security policies and procedures.
Step 6. Submit Compliance Reports to Acquiring Banks and Payment Processors
After achieving compliance, you must submit your compliance reports and attestation of compliance, such as the SAQ or the Report on Compliance (ROC), to your acquiring bank or payment processor. These entities may require periodic updates to ensure that your business remains compliant with PCI DSS compliance requirements.
The Right Payments Provider Can Help with PCI Compliance
Adhering to the requirements outlined above may seem like a lot of work—and it can be. But here’s the good news: the right payments processor can help keep your cybersecurity ducks in a row.
Stax is a Level 1 PCI Service Provider. Level 1 is the highest level of PCI compliance, and protecting sensitive data is a top priority at Stax. We offer the resources and insights needed to each one of our members so they can stay PCI compliant, avoiding those fines. We also provide multiple tools to empower small- to mid-sized businesses to maintain their own PCI compliance through self-assessment questionnaires, partnership with Approved Scanning Vendors (ASV), and intuitive compliance portals.
An Approved Scanning Vendor performs scans on systems that a service provider or merchant uses, looking for potential vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach. This is a very handy service to have because an ASV can effectively analyze your systems, so you don’t have to.
There is a wide variety of ASVs that can help businesses and service providers become and stay PCI compliant, such as RSI Security, which leverages technology like tokenization in its approach. By using an ASV and becoming PCI DSS compliant, merchants can be confident both their data and their customer’s data are secure.
Going Beyond PCI Compliance
Enabling you to become PCI compliant is just one of the ways that Stax helps you be more secure. In addition to this, Stax also takes a number of steps to protect cardholder data.
End-to-End encryption and tokenization
Besides PCI standards, Stax also takes a number of steps to secure cardholder data.
Card information is encrypted on all of our processing devices and never stored after the transaction is completed. Stax’s state-of-the-art cloud architecture is constantly tested for vulnerabilities to ensure the safety and security of that sensitive data. And our end-to-end encryption prevents interception of data by third parties and uses modern tokenization services. This prevents third parties from not only intercepting data but from viewing it as well.
Partner data protection
We take security seriously for all of our partners and their customers. As part of our commitment to our partners, our technology is backed by a team of experts who can assist you in PCI compliance, every step of the way.
Stax is also a payment facilitator, meaning your customers can be onboarded quicker with enhanced security for PCI compliance.
We only use PCI and Federal Information Processing (FIP) approved protocols, including exclusive use of the TLS1.3. This layered approach to security means you can accept and manage payments in one of the industry’s most secure environments.
Fraud prevention
For both customers and merchants, fraud is a common concern. Fraud prevention is an integral part of our extensive security measures for cardholder data. Stax’s proactive technologies monitor and investigate accounts for any possible unauthorized charges.
All of our programs are PCI compliant through our integrations with financial partners, with “Know Your Customer” and Customer Identification Program checks to verify merchants, their businesses, and their funding accounts. Our team works tirelessly to monitor and prevent fraud for all of our merchant members.
GDPR compliance
The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, is a law passed by the European Union to protect customer data. The law went into effect on May 25, 2018, and violation of the GDPR can result in steep penalties. While the GDPR only applies to constituents of the EU, Stax has aligned itself where appropriate as part of our commitment to transparency, data protection, and accuracy.
At Stax, we’re committed to securing sensitive cardholder data. As a Level 1 PCI Service Provider, we take the utmost care in protecting this data. We use a host of security measures to prevent fraud and ensure PCI compliance across all of our products. Our team will always be available to assist you in staying within PCI standards. In the new digital age of payments and shopping, security is top of mind for businesses. With Stax, you can rest easy knowing your data is protected and secure.
Final Words
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of PCI compliance and how it impacts your business. When it comes to the Payment Card Industry, it’s always better to be safe than sorry, especially with the disastrous outcomes that non-compliance can bring. To find out what your merchant level is and how you can become PCI compliant, visit this helpful resource.
At Stax, we’re committed to securing sensitive cardholder data. As a Level 1 PCI Service Provider, we take the utmost care in protecting this data. We use a host of security measures to prevent fraud and ensure PCI compliance across all of our products.
Our team will always be available to assist you in staying within PCI standards. In the new digital age of payments and shopping, security is top of mind for businesses. With Stax, you can rest easy knowing your data is protected and secure.
Get in touch with us to learn more about how Stax keeps your business and customers secure.
Quick FAQs about PCI Compliance
Q: What is PCI Compliance?
PCI DSS stands for “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.” These standards are set by card associations like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to ensure sensitive payment data is securely processed, transmitted, and stored. The PCI Security Standards Council determines and sets these security standards.
Q: Why is PCI Compliance important?
PCI compliance is essential as it helps prevent data breaches, cultivating customer trust. It applies to any business or organization involved with a cardholder’s data – transmitting, processing, or storing it. Small businesses, contrary to popular belief, pose the highest risk because they often lack the resources to implement tight security measures. Non-compliance can lead to many degrees of harm to any and all business owners.
Q: What happens if a business is not PCI Compliant?
Non-compliant businesses face a monthly fee from their processor for not adhering to PCI DSS standards. Additionally, they can face class action lawsuits, fines of up to $10,000 per month, and $500,000 per incident. Non-compliant businesses may also lose their ability to process credit card transactions.
Q: How can a business become PCI Compliant?
To become PCI compliant, a business needs to have a secure network and systems for processing payments, safeguard cardholder data, implement a vulnerability management program, enforce strong control access measures, monitor and test networks regularly, and have an information security policy. Continuous adherence to these steps is necessary to stay PCI compliant.
Q: How does Stax help with PCI Compliance?
Stax is a Level 1 PCI Service Provider, the highest level of PCI compliance. It offers resources and insights to members to stay PCI compliant and provides tools to empower small- to mid-sized businesses to maintain their own PCI compliance. Stax also partners with Approved Scanning Vendors (ASV) and offers intuitive compliance portals for data security.
Q: What additional security measures does Stax take to protect cardholder data?
Apart from PCI standards, Stax uses end-to-end encryption and tokenization to secure cardholder data. It also offers partner data protection and fraud prevention measures. All programs are PCI compliant, and Stax uses only PCI and Federal Information Processing (FIP) approved protocols.
Q: Does Stax adhere to GDPR compliance?
Yes, Stax has aligned itself with the GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, a law passed by the European Union to protect customer data.
Q: Does Stax help businesses of all sizes remain PCI compliant?
Yes, Stax assists businesses of all sizes, including small-to-mid-sized businesses, in maintaining PCI compliance through self-assessment questionnaires, partnerships with Approved Scanning Vendors (ASV), and intuitive compliance portals.
Q: What is the role of an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) in PCI compliance?
An Approved Scanning Vendor performs scans on systems that a service provider or merchant uses, looking for potential vulnerabilities that could lead to a data breach. An ASV effectively analyzes systems, thus aiding businesses and service providers in becoming and staying PCI compliant.
Q: Can non-compliance lead to the revocation of credit card transaction processing abilities?
Yes, if a business is non-compliant with PCI DSS standards, its ability to process credit card transactions may be revoked.
