PCI Compliance

What is PCI?

PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance is a set of regulations that have been established to ensure the security of customer data. These regulations are put in place by the credit card companies, such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Any business that processes or stores credit card information must be PCI compliant.

Why is PCI Compliance Important?

PCI compliance can affect your business in lots of different ways. It affects the security of customer data, your reputation, and your ability to process credit card transactions.

If you are not PCI compliant then that could mean that it would be harder for you to gain access to new customers who want their payments processed via credit cards. If a company has the ability to process credit cards, then they are seen as more trustworthy.

If you’re not PCI compliant it could also affect your business’ reputation. If a company’s security is breached because they do not have adequate protection protocols in place that can damage their reputation and make them seem untrustworthy.

Does My Business Need to be PCI Compliant?

If you are a business that takes credit card payments then it is important to be PCI compliant. If your company does not take credit cards, but stores customer data online, then this also affects whether or not your business needs to be PCI compliant.

PCI compliance for e-commerce businesses may seem like an inconvenience because there are some fees associated with it, but in the long run you will be saving your business from some potentially very costly security breaches.

Some steps in assessing PCI compliance are:

• Review of cardholder data storage locations and formats.
• Review of access controls.
• Preparation of Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) as needed.
• Assisting towards PCI compliance through the Prioritized Approach Tool.
• Review of existing agreements, documentation and operating policies and procedures.
• Swiping Card PCI
• Developing policies and procedures for payment cards as needed.
• Payment card process improvement.
• Security awareness training with specific emphasis on data privacy and managing cardholder data.
• Developer training on secure programming techniques.
• Assisting with remediation.
• Network vulnerability scans.
• Providing validation and certification of PCI compliance by a certified QSA once all requirements are met. We will facilitate the preparation of the Report on Compliance (ROC) and the Attestation of Compliance (AOC).
• Schedule a Call

At Brightline IT, we understand your concern for your employees, clients, and reputation. That’s why we’re uniquely qualified to assist you when it comes to PCI compliance. 

We offer a variety of services to help your business become PCI compliant, including:

• Consulting and analysis
• Implementation and support
• Training

Additionally, there are a few steps that every company needs to take when working towards becoming compliant with PCI standards. The first step is getting an internal vulnerability scan performed on all of your systems. This will let you know about any vulnerabilities that need to be addressed before compliance can be achieved.

The next step is requesting a current Statement on Compliance (SOC) report from an approved security scan vendor, such as Brightline IT . Once this has been received and reviewed by the appropriate company personnel it must then be sent to an approved QSA (Qualified Security Assessor). Once this has been completed then your business can finally be considered PCI compliant.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming PCI compliant or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us today!