What Is All This Talk About Becoming PCI Compliant?

To create a uniform set of security standards, the five major credit card companies came together and created the PCI Security Standards Council. Usually, when people use the term PCI, they are talking about the Payment Card Industry and the Security Standards Council.
Among other things, the council created the Data Security Standard (DSS) to reduce credit card fraud. If someone steals our customer’s credit card information while we are not compliant with the DSS regulations, the Payment Card Industry will hold us financially responsible for the theft.
For the security of our websites, as well as the safety of our online visitors, it is critical that we run daily vulnerability scans as outlined by the Council in the DSS. These security scans, offered by Trust Guard, can protect our sites and servers from hackers and outside attacks, while SSLs, although they serve their purpose, only encrypt data during the credit card transaction.
This website includes tons of valuable content about all twelve requirements for PCI compliance, organized into six related categories, called “control objectives.” When we satisfy all of the Council’s requirements, we will become PCI Compliant.