What are PCI DSS and PTS and why are they important for your business?

What is PCI DSS compliance?

That’s a common question merchants ask us. Most of you have probably heard that PCI DSS is a type of security standard related to card payments. And that’s all, isn’t it? Here we explain the basics of PCI DSS as well as PTS and how they affect your business. It’s not only applicable to large companies, as many people think. It’s mandatory for all businesses, including yours.

Read on to find out why!

PCI DSS explained

PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. In short, it’s a set of technical and operation requirements, policies, procedures and tools to protect cardholder data.

PCI standards are created and maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) and consist of 12 basic requirements grouped in 6 categories. Their goal is to create a highly secure global payment environment and protect merchants and consumers from security breaches and theft of cardholder data.

Everyone who is storing, processing or transmitting cardholder information (or in other words, accepting card payments) has to comply with PCI DSS. This includes financial institutions, point-of-sale payment providers and merchants of all sizes. Even software developers of applications and devices for card transactions are required to comply with this standard.

What is PTS?

PIN Transaction Security, or PTS, is a set of technical and operational requirements which are used to protect cardholder data. These standards are applicable to every organisation which stores, processes or transmits cardholder data. That’s why you, as a merchant, need to be aware of these requirements when accepting transactions on your card payment device.

How this affects your business

Security is of paramount importance for both businesses and consumers. You might say to yourself “Why would anyone target my small business instead of a large bank institution?” Hackers are smart and perfectly aware that small businesses don’t have the resources to build and maintain integrated and advanced security systems. That makes them considerably more vulnerable than large companies and banks. That said, they are easy targets for hackers.

The slightest doubt of a security breach or a hacker attack can severely harm your business. On the one hand, customers suddenly lose trust. On the other, your business fails to maintain credibility and can be subject to financial liabilities and fines.

Fraud protection

The losses could be enormous. There is a significant chance your business won’t manage to recover and head towards bankruptcy.

You understand how important it is to set and maintain strict rules and procedures, which protect you against vulnerabilities, fraudulent activity and security breaches.

With that in mind, in December 2004, the PCI SSC’s founding members, including Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Discover and JCB International, decided to implement the PCI DSS set of rules and requirements as a part of their data security compliance programmes.

Since then, the PCI DSS has become vital for everyone receiving and processing card information. However, it’s important to note that the standards are regularly updated, and the security framework itself is reviewed and refined.

Maintaining compliance is a continuous process. The reason is that the PCI Council is constantly striving to ensure relevance of the standards and address current threats.

myPOS cares about security

We, at myPOS, put security first. Our payment solutions are fully compliant with PCI DSS and PTS and guarantee safe card payment processing. Moreover, all myPOS devices are PTS compliant as well, ensuring the safety of all transactions you make and receive. 

Thanks to innovative technologies, we’ve developed and implemented advanced fraud-detecting mechanisms and security-monitoring systems to protect merchants and customers.

myPOS is good for security and for business. 

If you haven’t considered using our solutions yet, now is the perfect time to do so.