Corona induced pandemic has accelerated the rate of adoption for varied industries. E-commerce, Fintech, SaaS platforms, and cloud storage are among the industries that are growing at a commendable pace. The arc in the adoption curve has got hackers attentive too. Online services mean online payment, the involvement of credit, debit, and prepaid cards. Any organization that is offering paid or subscription services is expected to store card details and process them on monthly basis.
Since organizations are storing and processing this highly-potent customer information, they are required to fulfill the 12 requirements of PCI DSS Compliance. Our comprehensive PCI DSS guide covers everything organizations need to do when preparing for this compliance.
Well, it would be unfair to have the same norms applicable to small businesses that are cash negative as well as for organizations with billions in cash. PCI Council which includes industry leaders like VISA, MasterCard, and America Express have established levels based on the:
By creating levels, PCI Council has leveled the ground and offered businesses of all sizes to have a positive outlook and cater to customers with confidence. Some of the underlying benefits of these levels are:
Cybersecurity experts and veterans are now looking at PCI DSS as compliance that covers everything. The 12 requirements of compliance are so wide and include almost every step that confiscates internal attempts of hacking and restricts external attacks.
Industry veterans cite that furnishing PCI Compliance helps them cover requirements of varied compliances like GDPR and a few compliances from the ISO family. PCI has added another feather to its cap by creating levels that cater to businesses of varied sizes.
As mentioned earlier, PCI DSS compliance has multiple levels to ensure businesses of all sizes are able to furnish the requirement and function under a safety blanket. Every level comes with its own set of requirements that needs to be furnished quarterly as well as annually. The requirements vary from levels to levels on the basis of the volume of transactions processed by organizations.
Organizations with smaller transaction volumes need to have lesser norms in place because they are less vulnerable and any failure will impact only a limited number of customers whereas mishaps with bigger organizations can impact millions of people instantly. When bigger organizations are caught in a web of digital disasters like DDoS attacks or ransomware attacks, the global economy suffers and huge losses incurred on the private as well as government part hence all these Levels and their unique requirements.
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Organizations that fall under the Level 4 category need to follow requirements provided by their local bank. Discover, VISA and American Express do not have any such requirement for Level 4 organizations. In other words, only a handful of banks provided Level 4 support.
The attacks are continuously increasing, the best way of avoiding these attacks is to be aware of the challenges. By putting your organization through the pain of PCI DSS certification, you are saving customers from the pain, which directly impacts your brand reputation.
PCI DSS compliance ensures all transactions are safe and processed with a key that is only available for legit stakeholders. The varied levels are designed to help businesses of all sizes enjoy the benefit of working under a safer blanket.