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Is The E-merchant Pci Compliant? Check Before You Purchase

Protecting yourself from identity theft is more important than ever as thieves and hackers are finding more and more cunning ways to steal your personal information. You may not even be aware of some of the dangers out there. Did you know that when you pay for something using your credit card that represents an opportunity for hackers? If the proper security measures are not in place the transmission of your credit card information can be intercepted and put to use in credit card fraud. Additionally when your credit card information is stored by retailers it is also vulnerable. Hackers can break into storage systems and gain access to thousands of peoples credit card information with one welldesigned piece of software. It has happened before. There are some steps you can take to protect yourself however.

Some retailers will offer you the opportunity to store your credit card information on their server so that it will be easier for you to checkout in future transactions. While this is a convenience it can also be a risk. Allowing your information to be stored opens it up to added vulnerability. If you want to be really safe with your information avoid storing it on merchant servers whenever possible.

Before you pay for something using a credit card or transmit your credit card information online you should always make sure the company youre giving your information to is PCI compliant. While the security of traditional brick and mortar stores has been breached in the past emerchant breaches are more common. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards PCI DSS were designed to help protect your credit card information while in the hands of merchants. They include a list of requirements for merchants who accept credit cards from American Express Discover MasterCard and Visa. These requirements are contractual obligations between the payment brands and acquiring banks.

The deadline for every applicable merchant to be PCI compliant has already passed but some businesses are still not yet compliant. In order to protect your own interests its best to only use your credit cards with businesses whose PCI compliancy you can verify. Its not always easy to verify PCI compliancy however. If you are in doubt contact the emerchant and inquire about their PCI compliancy. Dont make the mistake of thinking that because an emerchant is a large national corporation that your credit card information is safe. Most of the compromised credit cards are gotten from the largest companies also known as level 1 because a single security breach often results in a large volume of compromised information. Its important to recognize however the majority of breaches are from smaller merchants whose security measures may be more relaxed.

Smaller companies often have a harder time achieving PCI Compliance because most security solutions are geared towards companies that process a higher volume of transactions. Comodos Painless PCI program however is designed to help emerchants who process less than a million credit card transactions per year. This free webbased application walks emerchants through becoming PCI compliant so that they can meet the standards of credit card companies and acquiring banks as well as providing peace of mind and confidence for their customers.

About the writer: Vijayanand working as a online marketing coordinator in ID Theft team in Comodo a leading internet security provider offers a real time Identity Theft Prevention and Identity Fraud restoration services among others.