What Is PCI Compliance?
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
Well, First of all the term PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that deal with credit card information maintain a secure environment. Essentially any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID).
PCI Compliance is critical in terms of protecting consumers from identity theft. The Identity Theft Resource Center, a non-profit organization located in San Diego, is committed to helping victims of identity theft and protect others from the crime. Linda Foley, Executive Director of the organization, reports that according to 2 studies done in July 2003 (Gartner Research and Harris Interactive), approximately 7 million people became victims of identity theft in the prior 12 months. That equals 19,178 per day, 799 per hour, 13.3 per minute. What is sad is that today, the number of identity theft victims is much higher- it has increased to more than 10 million people per year. In 2005 at least 152 data disclosure incidents have been disclosed, potentially affecting more than 57.7 million individuals
The incidence of victimization increased 11-20% between 2001-2002 and 80% between 2002 -2003 (Harris Interactive). This same study found that 91% of respondents do not see an “end to the tunnel” and expect a heavy increase in victimization. 49% also stated that they do not feel they know how to adequately protect themselves from this crime.
Victims now spend an average of 600 hours recovering from this crime, often over a period of years. Three years ago the average was 175 hours of time, representing an increase of about 2470%. These statistics are staggering, but PCI Compliance helps prevent this heinous crime, which not only has millions of victims, but costs businesses and consumers millions of dollars per year. Consumers need to be wary of ordering anything from a site that does not have the proper security measures and from any business that is not PCI compliant in its gathering of sensitive credit card and personal information.
At NetHosting we are a 100% PCI Compliant Data Center that has been around for 15 years. We pride ourselves in helping our customers out and becoming the best data center. If you would like more information on how we can help you to become 100% PCI compliant please contact us at 801.223.9939 or visit our site.
