What is PCI DSS certification?
Another acronym? Yes, but this is one youll want to know about. PCI DSS stands for The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Its a set of technical and operational standards, set by a council of representatives from major financial companies, such as Visa, American Express, and Mastercard. Since 2006, the council has met regularly to ask the question: how can payment card companies keep their customers data safe? Passing PCI DSS certification is probably more gruelling than any exam youve ever sat.Its also a lot tougher than other ineffective security standards, such as SSL certification. A company needs to either pass a thorough inspection from an external security assessor or to submit reports from a designated internal security assessor. Wirex meets all of the strict requirements for PCI DSS certification. Go ahead and dive into the more technical details if youre interested, but if not, this includes stuff like:- Avoiding storing data whenever possible and never storing sensitive information (such as PINs.)
- Using cryptographic storage and encrypted transmission for any data that must be stored.
- Limiting who can access data with ID checks, screening employees and educating them about security.
- Regularly testing security systems and keeping software up to date.