The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a compliant data transfer standardization that is used to ensure the security and privacy of the transfer of financial information. It was designed as a standard to ensure that any company that would process, store, or transmit credit card information maintains the infrastructural security necessary to provide a secure pathway in which to transfer financial information.
While PCI DSS is not an law on the books, it is a global and almost universally accepted set of security protocols that govern the health of a company’s computing integrity in regards to its ability to keep consumer and vendor financial information safe. The six goals of PCI DSS are:
1. Create, manage, and maintain a PCI-compliant network.
2. Protect the data that your organization has acquired.
3. Create and maintain a plan in which to manage your environment’s vulnerabilities.
4. Implement enhancements to access control interface.
5. Monitor, manage, and regularly test networks.
6. Maintain a policy in which to continuously manage your organization’s data security.
PCI DSS also provides merchants with many useful practices that work to ensure that you aren’t short changing your data security protocols.