Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance- How to Avoid Major Merchant Penalties

In 2010, a new PCI Compliance standard was set in place to protect sensitive credit card information and merchants who process credit cards. If your organization process credit cards with SAP Business One or any other ERP, you should recognize the PCI requirements and assure your organization is operating within their boundaries.

Who should be Concerned about being PCI Compliant?

Any organization that processes, transmits, or stores credit card information. Publicity of security breaches has recently been focused on larger companies, Visa reports that the majority of breaches are taking place at small businesses.

Why Become PCI Compliant

As a wholesaler, if your system is breached and credit card information is stolen, PCI fines can be as high as $500,000 per incident. In severe cases, merchants can even be given the “Death Penalty,” preventing them from accepting credit cards.

How To Become PCI Compliant

It is highly recommended that companies engage a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) to guide them through the process to become and maintain a PCI Compliant environment. There are twelve mandated security requirements that need to be met and maintained. A very important piece of PCI Compliance is leveraging the use of a PA DSS certified credit card solution to handle transactions.

Software publishers who have developed PA DSS certified products are continually developing additional security features to meet the ever changing PCI Compliance standards. As developers of software solutions for SAP Business One, Third Wave Business Systems has met all of the requirements and we have therefore been awarded PA DSS certification in 2010 for our credit card processing solution.