Important information on Visa/MC PCI Compliance for Internet Merchants and Merchants that Store Card Data

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a relatively new initiative backed by Visa, MC, AMEX, Discover, and JCB to ensure best practices of protecting cardholder data. The PCI DSS scanning requirements applies to all merchants that store or process credit card information via the Internet.

According to the PCI Compliance Guide any business that processes credit card transactions must be in compliance with the PCI standards.

PCI's Khalid Kark, says that a rule of thumb is that "If you house credit card information, in whatever form, if you house the information in your server-the server that you own or you added-then you are basically responsible for complying with PCI DSS."

Fortunately PCI scanning can be very affordable for most online merchants that are simply accepting credit cards from their website or using a virtual terminal. There are a few cost effective options such as Hackerguardian, and there are also very cost effective merchant processing solutions such as our featured NexCommerce solution (links to both are below under "Resources"). you may also browse other PCI compliance scanning firms by searching the entire list of approved PCI scanning companies (link also below).

PCI Compliance is important but doesn't have to be as daunting as some recent releases have made it seem. The technology is already there to ensure that merchants are compliant, it's just a matter of either choosing a merchant provider/solution or choosing a scanning company (if you wish to keep your current merchant account).

Resources:

1. For our recommended online merchant account solutions (for cost effective and secure processing) visit: http://www.merchantseek.com/online-merchant-account.htm

2. If you already have an internet merchant account, for a free 3 month trial of the popular Hackerguardian PCI Scanning service that works with your existing merchant account visit:
http://www.hackerguardian.com/hackerguardian/learn/pci_free_scan.html

3. PCI Compliance Guide: http://www.pcicomplianceguide.org

4. For the entire list of approved PCI scanning companies visit: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pdfs/asv_report.html

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Joe

MerchantSeek
Your Payment Acceptance Source
www.merchantseek.com