I Believe that It Is Cheaper To Be PCI Compliant Than To Not Be PCI Compliant

According to a study conducted by Solidcore Systems, Emagined Security, and Fartrex, the lack of being PCI Compliant could potentially exceed the cost of being PCI Compliant by 20 times!

In James Barrow’s book on achieving PCI compliance, he states that the research study showed that “not becoming compliant with the standard (Data Security Standard – or DSS) could lead to additional costs posed by a data breach.”

For one, the SSC (Security Standards Counsel) can elevate your business to Level 1 status following a breach or compromise. That means that you will have to do everything a Level 1 has to do despite the lower level of transactions that you process. Of course, the biggest expense with this option is the previously unnecessary need to hire a Qualified Security Assessor or or pay someone inside your organization to conduct an Internal Audit if it is signed by an officer of the company.

Also, Barrow continues, “a breach may require further expenditures related to customer notifications and providing credit monitoring services. Finally, there are the expenses that may result from litigation, as well as the unknown variable of the cost to the company in loss of customer confidence.”

So, you decide, you can scan your site for vulnerabilities against hackers and increase customer confidence by displaying trust seals. Or you can leave your site open to hackers and outside attacks and potentially face the swollen and costly revised requirements of the Payment Card Industry.

To put it in monetary terms, you can pay almost $10,000 a year to repair the damage caused by security breaches from hackers and outside attacks. Or, you can pay a reliable scanning company about $500 a year for daily vulnerability scanning and PCI Compliant Reports.

Included in the yearly price you will receive a Security Scanned trust seal which will grow your business significantly. In fact, the best trust seal companies offer a “Double Your Money Back Guarantee” if your sales/conversion rates do not increase simply by displaying their seals.

With that knowledge, getting a daily scan and a seal to show online consumers that your site is safe seems like a no-brainer. Don't believe me or the research study? Ask the thousands of website owners who have been hacked! It is cheaper to be PCI Compliant than to not be PCI Compliant.

Author: Aaron Brandley is an independent website specialist. To learn more about PCI Compliance, go to www.pci-compliance.us. To purchase PCI Compliant website security scanning and trust seals, visit www.go.Trust-Guard.com.

Security Scans Lead to Trust Seals Which Lead to Increased Revenue!

There are many trust seals on the market today. That's because online consumers have never been so cautious about shopping online as they are now.

After Trust Guard has scanned our site for over 30,000 vulnerabilities, we need to take full advantage of our now safe site by displaying Security Scanned Verification Seals.

It makes sense for us as website owners to remove all the fear, doubt, and suspicion that accompanies making a buying decision online. When there is no hesitation to do what we want our online visitors to do, our conversion rates will increase.

Online consumers worry about the security of our websites. They ask: Is this website safe? Will I get a virus? Do they scan daily for vulnerabilities so that hackers won't get in and steal my personal information?

They worry about the privacy of the our websites. They ask: If I give them my email address, will I wake up tomorrow with 50 emails from companies I've never heard of?

They worry about our integrity as business owners. They ask: Is this a trustworthy business? If there is an issue with my purchase, will I be able to contact someone?

There are several ways that trust seals give consumers the peace of mind they need to trust us as website owners. They can see on the seals the date of the last time that our websites were verified. Also included on the trust seals are the names of our websites - customized exclusively for each particular company.

They can click on the seals and view the certificates that the trust seal company provides that show when our websites have been verified. The certificates will also show that the websites have passed the daily vulnerability scans – which everyone knows is the first line of defense in keeping our websites safe from hackers and outside attacks.

Online consumers can also view our phone, email, and physical address on the certificates, so that they know that they will be able to get a hold of us should the need arise. The trust seal company also provides their information, so that if for some reason we as website owners do not resolve a disagreement with a customer in a timely fashion, they can help.

It's really pretty simple. When we as website owners increase the amount of traffic that trusts us, more people will do what we want them to do. One of the most productive ways to achieve high levels of trust with online consumers is to display trust seals on our websites.

All Websites Should Follow the PCI Data Security Standard

All PCI compliance security standards effect e-commerce sites that gather credit/debit card information, but five of the six categories from the Data Security Standard also effect non e-commerce sites. In other words, when it comes to PCI Compliance, everyone who owns or operates a website should pay attention.

Build and Maintain a Secure Network
Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
Implement Strong Access Control Measures
Regularly Monitor and Test Networks
Maintain a Information Security Policy


All e-commerce businesses that accept payment cards are required to do two things: Quarterly PCI Scanning on all external-facing IP addresses, and a Report on Compliance or Self-Assessment Questionaire concerning PCI SSC Compliance and the PCI DSS.

PCI Scanning (also known as PCI Security Scanning or Vulnerability Scanning) involves having a PCI Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) scan each public e-commerce IP address. However, if customers are transferred to a third-party shopping cart hosted by your shopping cart provider during the checkout process, then those IP addresses should be scanned as well.

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.

The Critical Nature of Website Security

We've all heard the stories of the US Pentagon and other seemingly impenetrable websites and servers being compromised by hackers and outside attacks. Oddly, the percent of website owners who perform daily vulnerability scans to keep hackers out, is remarkably low. Is it because we're eternal optimists - "That will never happen to me!" or is it because we do not fully understand the potential disasterous results that could come from our website being compromised? Hackers don't care how big or small you are and lately, they don't even care if you sell anything! If you are creating a list, they want it!

How long have we worked to get our websites up and running? How much money have we spent to get our websites to work the way they do right now? When we consider the relatively low cost of protecting our sites from hackers and outside attacks, it's easy to see why more and more level-headed website owners are getting their sites scanned daily to keep safe and to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry and their Data Security Standard.

Having said that, today, online security isn't only about protecting our websites. Now it's also about staying in business! That's because more and more often, our potential customers will not buy from us if we do not show them that our sites are clean and have passed daily vulnerability scans. Online Consumers are more savvy than ever when it comes to website security, privacy, and business identity.

If our sites aren't protected with an SSL, and there is no visible evidence that we run daily vulnerability scan, the majority of shoppers won't do business with us. The same goes for our sites that don't provide evidence of a privacy policy compliant with local and national regulations. Online visitors also consistently shy away from our websites if we don't show them how easy it is to contact us by phone, email, chat, or a physical address.

If you want to learn more about Trust Guard, the leader in website security and verification, and how their products can protect your site while growing your business, Click Here.

Online Consumers - Listen Up!

Are you tired of looking at websites that you have never seen before and wondering:

- Is this site safe from Hackers?
- Will I get 50 unwanted emails tomorrow?
- Who are these people? Can I trust them?
- Are they going to store my credit card information on their server?
- Where is this business located?
- If I had problems, could I get a hold of them?

I have one answer for all your concerns:

LOOK FOR TRUST GUARD SCANNING AND VERIFICATION SEALS!

If the website you're on displays all of their scanning and verification seals, you can be assured that it is scanned to be safe from Hackers, you can reach them if you need to, and that they have a privacy policy. If they don't use Trust Guard, send them an email discussing your concerns and suggest to them that displaying third party trust seals help online consumers feel confident - which encourages them to purchase more products and services more often!

Trust Guard Seals - Get Them Now!

If you buy Trust Guard seals and you don't grow your business they will give you your money back!

PCI Compliance and Website Security

There are some of you website owners who still don't know how important it is to your business to utilize third party scanning and verification services. That's OK! I can help explain it for you. I will summarize a little for you here, but to get the "meat and potatoes" you need to visit PCI-COMPLIANCE.US. First of all, Trust Guard scans for over 30,000 vulnerabilities that hackers can use to steal databases and/or really mess things up with your website. Knowing about the vulnerabilities you have on your website can help you to resolve the issues and maintain a safe site. Second, when online consumers visit your site, they want to know if you are a legitimate business that has a safe website with a visible privacy policy. Third, when your site is safe, and your visitors know it is safe, private, and legitimate, they will buy from you more often! That's why you need Trust Guard to grow your business! A great side-effect is that your site remains safe, while you are turning more of your visitors into customers.

Trust Guard Seals - Feel Secure While Growing Your Business!

Grow your business by keeping it safe!

Hello Everyone!
First of all I want to let website owners know that one of the easiest ways to increase sales is letting your online visitors know that your site is safe with a third party verification seals. I have a site that discusses PCI compliance called www.pci-compliance.us or you can just go to www.go.Trust-Guard.com. My goal is to educate the online consumer and website owner of the benefits of PCI scanning and security, privacy, and business verification products.