The Cost of Data Breaches, and How PCI Compliant Hosting Service Providers Can Minimize Their Risk
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A recent study by Consumer Reports indicates that credit card fraud is on the rise with almost a third of American consumers today falling prey to this crime. Because of this reality, it has become all the more important for all merchants to comply with the latest Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). With the right PCI compliant hosting service provider, it's also a process that can be done with relative ease.
The PCI DSS are handled by the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC), an independent body created by several major payment card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Any organization that accepts, transmits, or stores any cardholder data is required to be compliant with this standard, regardless of whether they handle credit, debit, or prepaid cards.
The need for standard compliance cannot be stressed enough. According to data collected by the Identity Theft Resource Center in 2008, approximately 35.7 million Americans were victims of breaches, with 40 percent of these breaches being targeted at businesses.
Once a merchant is suspected of a breach, they become subject to an investigation that can last for weeks, during which time they will be unable to conduct business. Coupled with the costs of the examination, which can run upwards of several thousand dollars, this can potentially cripple if not outright destroy the business.
While achieving PCI DSS compliance can reduce the risk of a breach, working towards that can be difficult. To help with the process, the PCI SSC provides a set of tools, including the Self-Assessment Questionnaire, to assist a business in determining if it is PCI DSS compliant.
Companies that need a more complete solution can also seek the help of a PCI compliant hosting service provider. A professional service provider can offer a highly secure IT infrastructure for client transaction data, no matter where it resides in the payment chain. By providing this secure infrastructure and robust managed services, a managed hosting service provider can help businesses satisfy the majority of over 200 security controls required to achieve PCI DSS compliance. In addition, service providers deal with PCI compliance qualified security assessors (QSAs) on a regular basis and will work with QSAs on the client's behalf.
By trusting the right partner, a business can attain their required compliance without having to sacrifice extensive amounts of manpower or resources. Some of the best ways to determine a hosting provider's capabilities are to check if their services are compliant with PCI DSS 2.0, the latest standard currently available to the public, and to see if the they are listed on Visa's Global List of Compliant Service Providers.
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Layered Tech is a PCI compliant hosting provider that helps businesses meet the IT security requirements needed for them to attain PCI DSS 2.0 compliance. The company's managed hosting services include support for dedicated servers and virtual machines for cloud computing environments. For more information, visit http://www.layeredtech.com/ or call 888-952-4888.