What is PCI Compliance & How does work?

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance refers to the technical and optional standards that businesses must follow to ensure that credit card data provided by the cardholders is secure.

The compliance is enforced by the PCI Standards that set the guidelines. Furthermore, it needs to be enforced by all the merchants and businesses irrespective of their turnover or growth and the number of credit card/debit card transactions they are dealing with. They have to follow the guidelines of PCI compliance to secure the sensitive information of their customers. This reduces the likelihood of theft of financial and personal data.

HOW DOES PCI COMPLIANCE WORK?

PCI DSS keeps itself updated with new norms to keep new threats at bay. Its guidelines are implemented in both, the administration and technological part of the merchant business. Hence, you will have to keep your website updated regularly and make sure the payment deals are in accordance with PCI compliance. This will prevent data theft and ensure the smooth running of your business. This is the major importance of PCI Compliance.

The companies or merchants are divided on the basis of a number of credit/debit card transactions, which they have to deal with periodically. On this basis, merchants are divided into 4 different levels. Level 1 is for the merchants who process the highest number of transactions every year. Whereas, Level 4 is for the merchants with the least number of credit/debit or bank transactions.

The eCommerce merchants who are accepting, processing, storing or transmitting credit card information have to be PCI compliant. This is for the safety and security of their customers and theirs’ too. Also, by becoming PCI compliant they undergo PCI audit procedures to meet the requirements of the latest PCI guidelines.

While conducting the business, it’s the duty of a merchant to keep the data safe of both the customer and the business itself. With PCI Compliance they get this service. However, there is always some risk for which you would need an expert to guide you.