All businesses that access payment cards – Via, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, JCB – are required by the card brands to comply with the security practices. There are penalties for non-compliance, such as fees and revocation of the merchant’s card processing ability. If there were a data breach, businesses found to be in violation of PCI DSS may be subject to fines and penalties. Even worse, if the business is found liable for a data breech, the associated costs can exceed $100,000.
PCI compliance can protect your business from hackers and data thieves, as well as limit your liability in the event of a data breach. As more businesses are turning to ecommerce, digital payment methods, cloud networking and cloud-based data storage, it creates more opportunities for cyber criminals to exploit vulnerabilities. Data breaches are becoming more frequent, according to a report in ComputerWeekly.com. A total of 878.17 million data records were compromised world-wide in January 2021 alone, more than the entire 12 months of 2017.
Payment card data can be stolen from an internet-connected business through theft of merchant receipt copies or transaction information, hacking of the point-of-sale system with Internet connections, and Internet hacking of ecommerce websites.