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Understanding PCI DSS Compliance Requirements
PCI DSS compliance requirements are an important consideration for banks, financial institutions and all agencies working in the payment card industry. These PCI compliance requirements refer to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which is a worldwide information security standard that has been put together by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. These standards were assembled to ensure that organizations are able to process card payments more efficiently and avoid such problems as credit card fraud. Using tools such as biometric authentication, these institutions are able to increase control over their data and avoid any compromise of that data.
The standards of PCI DSS compliance apply to any organization that holds, processes or passes cardholder information from any card that has been branded with the logo of one of the card brands, such as Visa or MasterCard. The PCI compliance requirements are upheld by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. The council is also responsible for maintaining other standards including the Payment Card Industry PIN Entry Device security requirements and Payment Application Data Security Standard, also known as the PCI PED and PA-DSS.
There are many processes that are used to comply with these payment card security standards. Biometric authentication is one important tool, which is a method of uniquely recognizing people based on one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. This may refer to identity access management and access control, or identifying people in large groups that are being closely watched. Some of the characteristics that are used to identify people include fingerprints, face recognition, DNA, hand and palm geometry, iris recognition, odor, typing rhythm, gait and voice.
PCI DSS compliance can either be validated internally or externally depending on the number of card transactions being processed by a particular enterprise. But in any case, there must always be manual assessments for compliance to ensure quality security. Companies that do not comply with these standards and wish to continue their relationship with one or more of the card brands risk losing their ability to process credit card payments. They may also face steep fines and audits. This is why it is so important for organizations to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
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