Do You Know What PCI Is (and why it is so important)?

If you are a business owner, a big question you need to know the answer to is this: “Do you know what PCI is…and why it is so important?”

Keep reading if you think PCI has to do with being Politically Correct (or) Incorrect…and why you need to know some important changes coming about this June. As in, June of 2018.

In the simplest terms, PCI is a standard for connecting computers.

It is that easy.

The PCI Council – a Standards Organization, however, is not making things easy for business owners. The primary reason is that they are trying to protect not only the business owners who process credit cards, but also the credit card companies like Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express and the consumers themselves.

Everyone pays when fraud happens and the PCI Council is trying to limit and prevent fraud from happening. To do this, they are updating their standards and these need to be followed.

So, if you are now asking yourself one or more of these 3 questions:

1) Am I compliant?

2) How can I tell?

3) If I am not, what do I need to do?

you can relax and know that we can help answer them with you.

The reality is that the upcoming deadline for the latest standards is going into effect on June 30th this year, whether you are ready or not. Don’t risk being out of compliance, which can impact your cost of processing, your ability to process a card payment, or put you at risk from a potentially fraudulent card.

If you would like help, please e-mail us or call for a security assessment. Or, you can also read more on our 1, 2, 3 Blog Series that covered more details on this topic last fall.

Then, if you still want to be assured you are ready, let us know.

~ Mary Ann