New merchants that are just starting with taking credit card payments in their store or on the internet need to understand the importance of PCI DSS. PCI DSS stands for payment card industry data security standard. PCI DSS was developed to protect card holder’s information each time their card is swiped or entered through online websites.
When merchants do not have a great PCI DSS protection, they are potentially putting out a high risk for all the customers that use their credit or debit cards in their business. When a business is setting up credit card processing with a merchant account, it is very important to ensure that security factors are in place to help protect their customer’s information at all times.
Customer’s are going to feel more secure by using the business’s website if it does show that it is a secured site. This is usually shown with a lock type of icon. As a merchant account holder, there are some other steps that you can take to ensure all of your customers’ information is protected.
Be sure to have a firewall configuration in place on your computer systems. Have passwords that are hard to figure out and are long in length for the systems you do you on your computer. Update your anti-virus protection regularly. Every employee that uses the computers at your business should have a unique ID number in order to log in. This way you will know which employees have been on the computer and the times. This helps in case credit card information was taken without permission. Always test your systems and track the use of all of your computers. Have the security plan outlined in your policy that you will provide to all of your employees. This will help them have a better understanding of why they will have ID numbers assigned to them and why they are being monitored on the computers.
When you take those steps, you will find that it will be harder for employees or other individuals to hack your customers credit or debit card information. This will help you build great relationships with all of your clients. Your clients will feel more secure about your credit card processing systems and feel that their information is safe each time they use it.