PCI compliance security standard has layers of protection to itself. And service providers, merchants and financial institutions have to ensure these while funds are processed with the help of credit cards. Such types of standards comprise of a comprehensive set of requirements from any agency that wants to process payments via credit cards. These requirements include:

• Vulnerability management program maintaining
• Maintaining Information Security Policy and other policies 
• Regular network testing & monitoring 
• Network architecture monitoring & testing
• Software Design, which can safeguard data of cardholders 
• Security management, such as network security maintenance 
• Processes associated to Access Control Measures implementation 

Qualified data security companies

Companies following and practicing PCI standards have to carry out operations which can ensure compliance validation. These include quarterly scans and onsite review by QDSCs . There are quite a few data security regulations, other than PCI standard, for merchants out there – such as Accountability Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

PCI Compliance and Online Business Owners

Your first step as a web business owner is to look for an ASV and have PCI compliance-tested. Remember that every online business owner who makes use of credit cards for payments processing need to be compliant to PCI standards. Typically, PCI scanning occurs after every 4 months or so.

Daily PCI scanning is offered by a few companies, which means that every day, your online business would be scanned for any problem. It is regarded as time consuming and unnecessary. This is because, as many people report, servers are taken down by scanning tests due to the test intensity. Remember that after there is fixing of the server issues and it passes the requirements of PCI compliance, issues will not quickly recur. Thus, there is no need for daily tests to be conducted. Doing a scan in 3 months is mandatory. It is according to the PCI security standards council. 

As an online business owner, however, you should not fall for sales gimmicks such as daily PCI scanning tests. While shopping online, customers typically look for sites that exhibit credibility and trust. Web seals can be an excellent way of improving sales online. A few registered vendors receive seals. After they pass the test. Although the law does not make it mandatory that your online business has to be compliant to PCI standards, you would do well to opt for it to make sure that your website is vulnerable to threats from the outside.