What is PCI Compliance?
NOTE: All Parson Enterprises, LLC Merchant Account Providers are PCI Compliant.
PCI security standards are technical and operational requirements set by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to protect cardholder data. The standards apply to all organizations that store, process or transmit cardholder data - with guidance for software developers and manufacturers of applications and devices used in those transactions.. The Council is responsible for managing the security standards, while compliance with the PCI set of standards is enforced by the founding members of the Council, Amercian Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc.
PCI is the acronym associated with thePayment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which details 12 standards for the secure storage and handling of card data. The PCI standard applies to all card brands. In a merchant's credit card processing contract, the merchant agrees to hold such data in a secure fashion and is contractually responsible for damages if it is stolen. The bankcard associations (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) have been aggressive in fining merchants with little to no leniency.
If you are using an older system, you are at a higher risk of card data theft. Contact your POS dealer about upgrading to a Payment Application Best Practices (PABP)-compliant version of software. To see a list of PABP-validated systems, go to www.visa.com/pabp.
Once transactions have been settled, there is no longer a need to store the data except in a truncated form. Mercury can provide the full card number associated with a transaction if it is ever required in the future.
Who is liable for a data security breach?
The merchant is responsible. The fines are levied in proportion to the number of card numbers that are lost and also can be increased if additional factors are involved such as the storage of full track data (which is strictly prohibited). We have seen fines that exceeded $100,000 for the loss of a modest
number of cards.
If your credit card terminal or POS software is more than 18 months old and has not been updated by your merchant account provider its time to change merchant account providers.
Contact our Sales Department today at 888-265-3826