Why is PCI Compliance Important to an Organization?

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) compliance is important to organizations that want to accept payment cards or transmit, process, or store payment card data. Since almost every business accepts credit or debit cards as a form of payment, PCI compliance has a very real appeal for data security. 

The control measures laid out in the PCI DSS reduce the risk of credit and debit card data loss. Not only is PCI compliance a requirement to prevent identity theft, but it is also packed full of best practices for detecting, preventing, and remediating data breaches. 

Becoming PCI compliant also protects an organization should a data breach ever occur and cardholder data become leaked. Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express recognize small businesses that are PCI DSS compliant and strongly promote information security practices. 

Failure to comply with PCI DSS comes at the cost of fines that may end a business owner’s ability to conduct e-commerce, accept payment cards, accept online payments in the future.