What is the PCI DSS?
PCI DSS stands for the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It is a set of security standards developed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) to protect sensitive data related to credit cards and credit card transactions. The PCI SSC is an international organization founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa International to enhance payment account data security by fostering the broad adoption of the PCI security standards.
PCI DSS stands for ‘Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard’. This is a (quite technical and broad-ranging) set of security requirements created by the Payment Card Industry, laying out what Merchants need to do to protect customer information. The PCI Council requires that Merchants meet this set of security requirements if their business accepts, transmits, or processes customer payment cards (such as credit cards or debit cards). Merchants that do not comply with these requirements can be penalized in a number of ways, up and including having their card-processing privileges revoked, leaving them unable to accept customer payment cards. A copy of the PCI DSS is available here. It should be noted that this site gives Merchants additional tools and advice to help them deal with the requirements of the PCI DSS.
