PCI Compliance

The payment card industry (PCI) protects cardholder data through technical and operations standard set by its Council. Compliance with PCI standards is mandatory.

It is enforced by the major payment card brands that established the Council – American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc. The standards have three components that cover all organisations which must protect cardholder data – from device manufacturers to developers of payment software applications (and their vendors) and merchant and processors.

Worldstone has made a major investment in ensuring that the core network is built to meet the PCI DSS security requirements. This core network combined with appropriate applications will deliver the secure service you demand and protect customer data. This can deliver great benefit to retail businesses who need to meet this security requirement to protect customer data. This service can be combined with any of the network solutions offered by Worldstone.

Why should you comply with the PCI Security Standards?

Compliance with data security standards can bring major benefits to businesses of all sizes, while failure to comply can have serious and long-term negative consequences. Here are some reasons why.

Compliance with the PCI DSS means that your systems are secure, and customers can trust you with their sensitive payment card information:

• Trust means your customers have confidence in doing business with you
• Confident customers are more likely to be repeat customers, and to recommend you to others.

Compliance improves your reputation with acquirers and payment brands – the partners you need in order to do business

Compliance is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. It helps prevent security breaches and theft of payment card data, not just today, but in the future:

• As data compromise becomes ever more sophisticated, it becomes ever more difficult for an individual merchant to stay ahead of the threats
• The PCI Security Standards Council is constantly working to monitor threats and improve the industry's means of dealing with them, through enhancements to PCI Security Standards and by the training of security professionals.

When you stay compliant, you are part of the solution – a united, global response to fighting payment card data compromise.

Compliance has indirect benefits as well:

• Through your efforts to comply with PCI Security Standards, you'll likely be better prepared to comply with other regulations as they come along, such as HIPAA, SOX, etc.
• You'll have a basis for a corporate security strategy
• You will likely identify ways to improve the efficiency of your IT infrastructure.

If you are not compliant, it could be disastrous:

• Compromised data negatively affects consumers, merchants, and financial institutions
• Just one incident can severely damage your reputation and your ability to conduct business effectively, far into the future
• Account data breaches can lead to catastrophic loss of sales, relationships and standing in your community, and depressed share price if yours is a public company.

Possible negative consequences also include:

• Lawsuits
• Insurance claims
• Cancelled accounts
• Payment card issuer fines
• Government fines.

Worldstone works with experts in the PCI DSS field to bring you simple solutions that cut through the complexity, saving you the effort, time and expense allowing you to focus on your core business.

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