By :
Keith Pollow
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) formed a worldwide security standard known as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard or PCI DSS. The PCI security standards are operational and technical requirements designed to assist business and organizations that process card payments prevent credit card fraud, hacking, and various other security vulnerabilities. The standards apply to all organizations that store, process, or transmit cardholder data with guidance for software developers and manufacturers of applications and devices used in those transactions. Therefore, any company processing, storing, or transmitting cardholder data must be PCI DSS compliant. For mid-sized enterprises operating in such areas healthcare, retail, and financial services, PCI compliance has become an expensive and lengthy task. Thorough PCI audits can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out and many fail in their first effort to attain certification. On their own, resource constrained IT organizations can find it difficult to put into practice the numerous multifaceted security standards required by PCI DSS. One of the best solutions to become PCI compliant is to acquire a PCI compliant Hosting Provider. The host provider you choose should partner with the right organizations to provide ASV services - Approved PCI Scanning Vendor (ASV). The scanning vendor will review the code on your site and detect vulnerabilities. You also need to build an infrastructure that complies with PCI recommendations. In particular you need a correctly configured Firewall, Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and if your site is accessible to the public you need to isolate the credit card data from the public data by means of a De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). For instance, you will greatly benefit from a PCI compliant hosting provider that uses Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) for Linux-based systems and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) for Windows systems. In addition, PCI Compliant Certification gives businesses an instant head start on their compliance initiatives. By using PCI certified cloud computing and hosting infrastructure, businesses can decrease their internal compliance costs by more than 60%. A quality and experienced PCI Compliant Hosting Provider is the industry's most comprehensive PCI compliance Solution. The PCI DSS standard addresses 12 major compliance areas that includes - security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design, etc, of which 10 areas are eligible to be addressed by a service provider. Most PCI compliant hosting providers address half of those eligible requirements. However, comprehensive PCI compliance solutions will combine hardware, software, and professional services to address all 10 of the service provider eligible compliance areas. A PCI compliant hosting provider's PCI compliance solutions address the complete PCI life cycle process. For instance, it is beneficial to acquire a service that offers a turn-key PCI start-up package that includes fully dedicated redundant architecture, authentication services, intrusion detection services, database layer DMZ, virus scanning, and PCI compliant networking equipment. In addition, it is beneficial to have PCI ongoing maintenance that includes: log review and management, system level vulnerability testing, change management, intrusion detection. PCI compliance solutions will transform compliance initiatives for mid-market retail allowing businesses to get ahead of developing compliance standards.
Author Resource:-
Leading IT infrastructure provider, offers Vmware, disaster recovery and data centre services for businesses located in in North America, Europe and Asia. Authors site:Free Seedbox
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