Silver Lining is a leading business IT, telecommunications, data, and security solutions provider. Our unified communication services are designed to enhance operational efficiency, minimise running expenses, and offer the ease of scaling up as your enterprise expands. Our comprehensive knowledge, innovative approach, and proficiency have earned us contracts with well-known brands. Providing our clients with award-winning IT for over 14 Years.

We collaborate closely with you to deliver a solution that meets and surpasses your expectations. We’ve covered you, be it business broadband, telephone systems, IT infrastructure, business mobiles, or even a catchy phone number. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions - we prefer to innovate beyond conventional boundaries!

In order to handle cardholder data, businesses must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), regardless of their size. Compliance with this standard must be maintained at all times and validated annually. Credit card companies typically mandate compliance with PCI DSS and include it in their network agreements.

It is presented as the minimum criteria that all merchants should strive to achieve to avoid data breaches. For those who provide PCI solutions to merchants, products must be compliant, which means they have to meet the 12 requirements.

In this blog, you will learn what the 12 requirements are of PCI DSS, what they involve and how you can maintain them. 

The Data Security Standard

Before we delve into the 12 PCI DSS requirements, it's first necessary to understand the 6 overarching principles behind them. 

  1. Establish and sustain a secure network infrastructure.
  2. Safeguard cardholder data against potential theft or compromise.
  3. Implement a vulnerability management program to detect and address security loopholes.
  4. Deploy robust access control measures to ensure authorised access only.
  5. Conduct regular monitoring and testing of networks for potential vulnerabilities.
  6. Establish and maintain an information security policy to guide organisational practices.

If all of these principles are met, then the payment card transaction environment that it happens in is compliant. 

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Nowadays, businesses have numerous options for processing card payments, especially with the rise of online payment platforms. However, some situations may call for traditional payment methods, such as accepting orders or payments over the phone. For instance, takeout restaurants frequently rely on card payments taken over the phone.

It is very dependent on the consumer as many people still prefer to pay for goods or services over the phone, especially if they are phoning you to find out more about their products.

Although taking card payments over the phone is still a valuable and real-time method, some view it as outdated and question its legitimacy for accepting card payments. Nevertheless, businesses can benefit significantly from this payment option. Keep reading to discover alternative and easy ways to process card payments without using the phone.

Before taking card payments over the phone, it is important to understand what rules and regulations you must abide by to ensure client data is safe. Between March 2022 and 2023, it was found that 3,412 phone-fraud incidents were reported to the UK police meaning now more than ever, it is crucial to go through the correct procedures for card payments in this digital age. 

In this article, we will examine the best method for handling card payments over the phone and emphasise the essential regulations businesses must adhere to when accepting payments through this channel. 

As your business flourishes and grows, safeguarding sensitive customer data should remain a top priority. Adhering to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is essential to protect both your customers and yourself from potential security threats with card payments.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard protects both customers and businesses. To safeguard cardholders, all companies involved in processing payments need to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

We know compliance is often viewed as a mundane exercise with minimal return on investment. Yet, this ideology overlooks the necessity for security in all organisations - something Silver Lining specialises in getting right.

PCI is an important standard to follow, especially when it comes to a growing business and owning one; the safety and security of your and your customer's sensitive information and data is a high priority, especially when regarding card payments.

Trust is the most valuable part of a customer relationship—especially when customers share their payment information online. Once you make a mistake, building that trust back with your customers is extremely hard.

To combat this, the standard PCI DSS protects both customers and businesses. All companies involved in processing payments need to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard to safeguard cardholders.

Do I need to Comply?

When considering whether you or your business need to comply with PCI-DSS, it is advisable to ask: 'Do I Store, Process, Transmit, or Affect the security of cardholder data?'

If the answer is YES to anything of the above, the probability is 'Yes, you do have to comply'. The next question you need to ask yourself

is: 'What do I need to do to become PCI Compliant?' To understand this, you will first need to scope your cardholder data environment and all the processes and systems components involved.

Such an environment comprises people, processes, and technology that handle cardholder or sensitive authentication data. That is a considerable amount of information that needs to be maintained securely, meaning numerous PCI controls must be introduced to ensure the cardholder's data and information are sustained safely. To also uphold this, regular auditing and testing are required to keep the highest level of security when dealing with personal information. This is needed on an ongoing basis and can cost an organisation both time and money to implement, but it will be more cost-effective in the long run.

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