What is PCI Scanning? You might have read or heard about PCI scanning, but aren't completely certain what it is, or whether your company needs it. In a nutshell, PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. The PCI council, which consists of the five major credit card companies, prepared a list of security standards in order to ensure that there is regularity when dealing with credit cards. So what exactly is PCI scanning? It is when an ASV (Approved Scanning Vendor) scans your website to check for any vulnerabilities. All PCI scans has to be done by a third party scanning vendor. Normally, the scans involve your website's IP address, but if you redirect customers to a third-party shopping cart for the checkout process, then you should include their IP address to also be scanned. This is highly important. Your business could be held responsible if credit card information falls into the wrong hands anywhere along the transaction process. One third party vendor that provides PCI scanning as of January 1, 2009, is Trust Guard. Notably affordable compared to the competitors, trust Guard especially specializes in working with small businesses. Trust Guard not only offers PCI scanning, but also provides privacy and security trust seals. This means more sales. If you have a business website that accepts credit cards it's a requirement that you prove PCI compliance at least yearly. In order to sustain PCI compliance, security scans, are required for all merchants that process, transmit, or collect payment card account information. I hope this has given some answers to questions about PCI scanning. Above all, you should remember that although PCI scanning and compliance can be a bit confusing, it�s important. Taking the time to make sure your website is PCI compliant will not only protect your customers and business, but you could easily see an increase in sales when customers begin to have more trust in your site.
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If you have an small business website that processes credit card information, it is important that you fully understand PCI scanning.
Sandy Cooke is a web writer and researcher for www.trust-guard.com, that specializes in helping small businesses websites make the most of e-commerse.
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