How Does PCI DSS Compliance Help You?

PCI DSS Compliance

Advanced technology has helped people and companies perform various transactions, especially monetary ones like receiving and paying while selling, buying, and transferring funds. This involves transmitting a lot of sensitive information online, which is not safe if not adequately protected. With a few multinational companies taking to the headlines owing to the customer data breach, there needs to be a stringent security system that helps avoid such malpractices and gain customers’ confidence.

A PCI assessment helps validate the security standards for organisations that accept, process, transmit, and store card information conforming to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Controlled and managed by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), which is a consortium formed by the five prime payment brands such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, JCB, and Discover. The PCI DSS compliance assessment standards consist of twelve requirements that organisations must satisfy when processing card payments.

Through an audit, a PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) conducts an assessment to ensure whether the requirements ranging from how the networks are built to how sensitive cardholder information is stored are met.

Various Benefits of PCI DSS Compliance Assessment

There are several merchants who consider the PCI DSS compliance assessment quite expensive and burdensome; nevertheless, it offers the following important benefits:

•         Minimises the risk of customer data breaches.

By implementing the PCI DSS requirements, you can minimise the risk of a customer data security breach. For instance, asking the merchants to adhere to the security controls by using encryption and firewalls and forbidding the retention of cardholder data makes it hard for the hackers to breach in and reduces the amount of sensitive information they could access to a good extent.

•         Wins customers’ thrust

Brand recognition and reputation are important to survive in today’s competitive market. Customers prefer and follow a brand that has an untarnished reputation, which is achieved through the protection of customer data using advanced security controls. It is presumed that investing in the brand includes investing in security, though it is hard to quantify. The larger the number of data breaches, the smaller the amount of trust a customer will have in your brand.

•         Safeguards customers

Protecting customer data through PCI DSS compliance is one of the soundest business decisions. Though a data breach may occur at some point in time for anyone, data privacy concerns are not at stake. A successful business asks for safeguarding sensitive customer information, and customers who realise that their information is safe show loyalty to the company by giving more business by referring family members and friends.

Who Should Undergo PCI DSS compliance Assessment?

Any merchant or service provider that accepts and processes credit or debit card payments must undergo PCI DSS compliance. The PCI assessment standards explain different merchant levels, which vary depending on the number of transactions processed annually, as well as different reporting requirements. In case any merchant fails to comply with the assessment standards, he or she will be fined through his or her acquiring bank, which may even extend to revoking the privileges to accept or process payments for repeated violations.