It is crucial for payment processing to be fast and dependable, but also safe for both small businesses and their consumers. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) was put in place to do just that, to ensure secure credit card processing.
Small businesses have been tasked with protecting their customer’s data, but that does not mean they can’t enlist the help of a secure credit card processing solution. Many payment processing solutions provide services that allow small businesses to comply with PCI regulations much easily and quickly.
Secure credit card processing tools come in a variety of forms, from hardware to software. Typically, these solutions utilize encryption technology that hides credit card numbers via tokenization. During the tokenization process, the credit card number is concealed with a randomly assigned code, or token. The token is then passed on to the merchant; releasing the merchant from having any liability associated with storing credit card data, since they are never actually stored the real credit card number. This tokenization solution allows small businesses to utilize credit card data with reduced risk and remain compliant with PCI Standards.
Small businesses can also make sure that they choose a merchant services provider that provides the latest information regarding secure credit card processing technological advancements. For example, Europay, MasterCard and Visa, or EMV regulations in addition to smart card adoption are an emerging trend in the credit card security processing space. Small businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve should being to plan how smart cards can be integrated into their current payment processing strategy. Examples of these emerging chip-based secure credit card processing technologies include EMV, which provide security to card-present payments in both physical and virtual card landscape.