Here’s an interesting thought to ponder: During your childhood, your parents might have known more about your credit card safety than you do currently. Wondering how this could be?  For starters, it’s important to know that SmartPay is PCI Compliant.

 

If you know what PCI Compliant and all it stands for means, that’s great; you’re ahead of the game and could probably use the rest of this blog as a mere refresher of sorts.  However, for the average person who doesn’t necessarily focus on e-commerce or the payment card industry, let’s do a quick run-through of what we’re talking about.

 

PCI compliant means “Payment Card Industry Compliant.”  This compliance is made up of a set of standards to ensure all companies that “process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.” ¹  This compliance is managed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.  The council was formed in 2006 to help develop, manage, educate and raise awareness regarding the importance and enhancement of security standards.

 

It’s also important to recognize that being PCI Compliant and having an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) Certificate isn’t the same thing.  Although an SSL Certificate is the first step in ensuring the safety of customer information, they “do not secure a web server from malicious attacks or intrusions.”   There are more components to PCI Compliance than there are to an SSL Certificate, making a PCI Compliant company the safest choice.

 

What does this mean for you?  It means when you choose to make any transaction online, be sure you are doing so with a company certified as PCI Compliant.  Although this compliance is technically required,  it is a standard instead of a law. There are certain companies and organizations choosing not to abide by it.  For these companies, they could face huge monetary fines, card replacement costs, brand damage and more.  Most importantly, however, these companies are not doing all they can to ensure your information is completely safe and secure.  

 

Plain and simple, the safety of your information should matter to a company.  Don’t let a company subject your personal information to dangerous exposure.  Instead, choose to do business with companies deemed PCI Compliant.  

 

So, it looks like all of the times your parents told you “Better safe than sorry,” really does hold true in certain cases.  Who knew such a cliché expression (that you probably heard on more than one occasion while you were growing up) would actually come back to hold some significant meaning to you right now, in 2010, regarding credit card information?!  

 

Looks like Mom and Pop really do know best.

 

 

 

To learn more about PCI Compliance and standards, visit PCI Security Standards or the PCI Compliance Guide.