PCI Compliance for SME
PCI compliance standards are a set of security standards outlined to ensure that enterprises business that accepts and processes debit and credit card information so in a secure environment. Despite your industry, if you agree to card payments and process, then you MUST securely host your data through a PCI compliant hosting provider. In this article, we try to look at PCI complain for SME by defining what it means, why it matters to small and medium-sized businesses, and other influencing factors such as cost and fines.
What is PCI compliance?
PCI is an acronym for Payment Card Industry and comprises of 12 requirements that span six goals. The main aim is to provide safe and secure transactions for those merchants and businesses about business payments. The practice also informs enterprises on how to beef up their payment security measures. This implies new techniques on how to protect cardholder’s data and activities such as developing and sustaining a secure network infrastructure.
Depending on the volume of transactions done by a business entity for 12 months, you get four different levels of compliance. Sales are measured in terms of visa transactions carried out, including debit, prepaid card, and credit card transaction by a merchant doing business as DBA. Of the four levels, level one has the most significant number of compliance requirements, bringing with it more than 6 million transactions annually, running own server, developing own program, or starting personal card data.
Significance of PCI compliance
In today’s world, with advanced technology and increase cyber-war, customers care about security than ever before. Retail and service industries experience high-profile data breaches, which make clients shy away from doing business with such entities. Consumers, therefore, tend to walk away from such a company that has experienced security incidences as a single breach may be so costly that it leads to the closure of the entire business for good. The primary significance of PCI compliance, therefore, is to create a strong brand and retain customers. The agreement does not guarantee 100 percent perfect protection against breaches but rather a boost of safeguard to data protection.
Advantages of PCI DSS Compliance
- Enhances trust with your customers
In e-commerce, trust is the key to success. Your customers should trust that they will receive items purchase, and they will securely process their payment details.
- Minimizes security breaches
For enterprise which process or store valuable data, governance and data compliance are some of the primary considerations when designing network infrastructure.
- Gives security the priority
PCI compliance requires an entity to build several layers of security such that firewalls are correctly configured. It also points out the significance of having an IT security strategy that is based on current security challenges and vulnerabilities.
- Acts as a baseline for other regulations
Meeting the set standards for different levels, be it level 1, 2, 3, or 4, only implies that you have enhanced your system to handle any threat better.
Costs
| Level | Costs |
| Level one | Not less than $50, 000 annually |
| Level two | $10, 000 to $50, 000 annually |
| Level three | $1, 200 annually |
| Level four | A minimum of $60 monthly |
Fines
It can cost an enterprise between $5 000 and $100 000 monthly in fines when found to be out of compliance. If the condition does not stop, then the merchant would be stripped of their payment processing services.