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).  For a full list of all compliance issues, please visit https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pci_dss_download.html PCI Compliant Hosting is a must for any small business.

PCI Compliance has been a concern in recent years and 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 of 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 today the number of identity theft victims is much higher.  Estimates show it has increased to more than 10 million people per year.  To give you an idea how big, in 2005 at least 152 data disclosure incidents have been disclosed, this has affected 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 .PCI Compliance helps prevent this terrible 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.

Enforcement of compliance is done by the bodies holding relationships with the in-scope organizations. Thus, for organizations processing Visa or Mastercard transactions, compliance is enforced by the organization’s acquirer, while organizations handling American Express transactions will deal directly with American Express for the purposes of compliance. In the case of third party suppliers such as hosting companies who have business relationships with in-scope organizations, enforcement of compliance falls to the in-scope company, as neither the acquirers nor the card brands will have appropriate contractual relationships in place to mandate compliance. Non-compliant companies who maintain a relationship with one or more of the card brands, either directly or through an acquirer risk losing their ability to process credit card payments and being audited and/or fined.

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 PCI Compliant 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 you can email me at info@nethosting.com!