Is your eCommerce website PCI compliant?
PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance has been optional for many small ecommerce sites up to now, but that all may be about to change very soon. Previously, PCI compliance was only mandatory for Level 3, 2 and 1 – merchants, which means those merchants that process more than 20,000 transactions a year or have been identified as having poor security processes. Now, everything has changed. Whether or not this change is for the better is up to ecommerce merchants’ willingness to comply. Their users, of course, will appreciate the added protection of their sensitive data, which is great PR anyway.
As of October 2006, PCI compliance became mandatory to all American Express-accepting merchants, including Level 4-those with 1 – 20,000 transactions per year. However, most merchants are still unaware of this and will remain unaware until something goes wrong.
What does this mean for you as a small ecommerce Business Owner? It means that your website platform and eCommerce site needs to be hosted in a PCI compliant data center if you’re going to be making credits cards transactions through your site. This is actually great news, because it simplifies the steps you have to take to become PCI compliant. All you have to do is host your site in one of several PCI Compliant data centers scattered across the world.
How do you know if your website is compliant? There are many free and pay services which test/scan your website for PCI compliance. These scans usually take 2-3 hours, and can take up to 2 days depending on the service. McAfee, Norton, and most SSL provider offer PCI scanning around $250 for the year, and they will often provide a security seal for your website to display.
These scans are becoming industry standard for any ecommerce merchant who wants to accept credit cards online. If you are unsure if your current web host provides PCI compliant hosting, you should call them directly to verify. If they are not comliat compliant, then you should move your website to a PCI compliant web host as soon as possible before Visa/MasterCard impose fines and shut your site down.
JMAC Solutions, Inc. provides website design, SEO, and eCommerce consulting for small to mid-sized businesses. We have over 10+ years experience with website design, website marketing, and growing e-business online. For more information, visit http://www.jmac-solutions.com
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