Are Your Favorite Sites PCI Certified?

You might have heard a lot about PCI scanning and compliance lately. You might have even taken all the steps you need in order to ensure that your website is PCI certified. But, I'm curious about something. Are the web sites you're shopping on PCI certified? This is something that should be important to you as an online shopper, to be sure that your personal information, such as social security numbers, account numbers, etc. is secure and safe. One of the ways to be sure, is if the website you are shopping on has been PCI certified.

Being PCI certified means that the website complies with what's required by the PCI DSS. Requirements include creating and maintaining a secured network, protecting cardholder data, cultivating a vulnerability management program, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and creating and following through with a privacy policy. In addition to those things, the web site should implement PCI vulnerability scans on a daily or at least quarterly basis. PCI vulnerability scans perform tests that make certain there aren't any vulnerabilities or threats on the website to cause customer information to be available to online predators and hackers.

You might be wondering how to determine if a web site that you shop on is PCI certified. An easy way to tell is by looking for trust marks posted on the web site. Trust seals are small images, that confirm that the site was verified by a third party, and is PCI certified. It is important to look for website trust seals when online shopping as a defence against online theives.

It's a no-brainer that internet shopping means that you need to use caution. Do your homework and be on the look out for current trust seals. Be certain the web sites you're shopping on are verified by a third party, and that they follow PCI compliance. Don't allow your personal information to fall into the wrong hands. Make sure that you are only doing business with PCI certified sites.