PCI compliance
PCI compliance (PCI DSS)
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Following the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the security rules for any business that stores, processes or transmits card data.
What is PCI compliance?
PCI DSS is maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council, which was founded by the major card brands. It covers things like secure networks, encrypting card data, controlling who can access it, monitoring systems and regular testing.
Merchant levels are set by how many card transactions a business handles each year. The largest merchants need an annual on-site assessment, while smaller merchants usually complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). Using a hosted checkout and a gateway that tokenizes cards keeps card numbers off your own systems, which greatly shrinks the work you have to do.
Example
For example, a Shopify store that takes payments only through Shopify's checkout never sees full card numbers. Its PCI responsibilities are much smaller than those of a store that collects card details on its own server.
Why PCI compliance Matters
Card data breaches are costly and damage trust, so keeping card data out of your systems is the safest path.
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