PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The PCI standards are managed and developed by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The PCI SSC's members are the major payment card brands: Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and JCB.
The primary goal of PCI DSS is to set technical and operational standards for all organizations that accept, store, process, and transmit the payment card information of customers. The intention is to provide an additional layer of security throughout the transaction process and maintain a secure environment.
Data thieves are always on the lookout for cardholder data. Once security is breached, they obtain the primary account number and sensitive authentication data. With the collected data, they impersonate the cardholder.
Card details can be compromised anywhere. Thus, protecting stored cardholder data and encrypting the transmission of cardholder data across public and open networks is important. The compelling need for businesses to have a hybrid workplace has led to an increased risk of security breaches as any data can be accessed and hacked anywhere, anytime, and through any device.
The sole purpose of PCI DSS is to protect cardholder data from hackers. By complying with PCI DSS, your data is kept secure, and you avoid costly data breaches.
PCI DSS compliance usually gets pushed down the security checklist as organizations assume it to be a tedious task involving a maze of technicalities. But organizations that fail to comply with PCI DSS risk the loss of greater things: their customers' trust and their reputations.
Below are some important benefits of PCI DSS:
PCI DSS includes a set of 12 requirements relating to network and resource security, with a core focus on protecting cardholder data. To be PCI-DSS-compliant, your organization needs to implement these security controls:
PCI DSS compliance is a mandate, regardless of your company's size and the number of payment card transactions you process over a period of 12 months. Based on the annual number of transactions your organization handles, there are four compliance levels.
| Level | Transaction volume/year |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | > 6 million transactions |
| Level 2 | 1 to 6 million transactions |
| Level 3 | 20,000 to 1 million transactions |
| Level 4 | < 20,000 transactions |
Each of the payment card brands of the PCI SSC has its own compliance program. Your first step towards getting your organization compliant is to find out what compliance level your organization is at today by checking with the payment card company you are using. Ensure you carry out the validation processes as prescribed by the company.
Protecting your organization from data theft doesn't have to feel like a hard climb if you identify the right PCI DSS compliance tool. A holistic security solution like AD360 helps companies audit and generate real-time compliance reports on logon attempts, audit policy changes, domain policy changes, file access, file creation, file deletion, failed logon authentication, and many more critical elements of PCI DSS compliance.
Remember, complying with PCI DSS is the best security guard against financial fraud.
