Compliance Standards

Before we delve into understandingVoice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data security on VoIP systems, heres a quick introduction to PCI DSS payment card data security standards.

The PCI Standard is mandated by the card brands and administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The PCI security standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud. Validation of compliance is performed annually, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) or by a firm specific Internal Security Assessor (ISA) that creates a Report on Compliance for organizations handling large volumes of credit card payment transactions, or by Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for companies handling smaller volumes.

Credit and debit cards have been around since the 1850s, but werent commonplace in American wallets until the 1970s. Why? Because consumers were wary of using them due to the nonexistent security measures and legislative support that was in place at the time. Consumer complaints against this lack of regulation led to the implementation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, the Unsolicited Credit Card Act of 1970, the Fair Credit Billing Act of 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act 1974, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1977. The passing of these acts gave consumers the support and confidence to use their credit and debit cards at a merchant without having to worry about having their data stolen or being discriminated for their transactions.

Becoming a Qualified Security Assessor, commonly referred to as a QSA, is a relatively grueling process that is in line with the important role that a QSA plays. In this article, well answer what a QSA is, how you can gain QSA designation, and why using a QSA to audit your cybersecurity is something you should be already doing. This information should provide insight into the role that QSAs play in cyber-security, and allow you to assess whether outsourcing your cyber-security to a QSA designated firm is a good choice given your security needs.

Your organization may feel as though its ready to be PCI DSS compliant, but do you really understand the complexities that come with this undertaking? The multitude of short and long-term intricacies that your business must adhere to is mind boggling. Are you truly ready to take the blue pill and fall down that rabbit hole for your company’s foreseeable future? Well, if you want to keep accepting credit cards at your point of sale (POS), you’re going to need to do more than just cram before your required PCI compliance scans. When 45% of businesses continue to take card payments even though they fail to comply with payment security regulations, you don’t want to become another data breach statistic. To fully grasp the density of requirements surrounding PCI compliance, follow us down the tunnel where we will detail the 4 levels of PCI compliance and the usefulness of PCI administrative access.