For small- and medium-sized businesses, PCI compliance is an especially important element of business operations. The Journal of Accountancy recently released a report advising SMBs to regularly inspect their PCI compliance protocol to ensure they are compliant.
An aspect of compliance that can prove problematic for SMBs is the requirement that all security systems protecting credit or debit card information remain i a highly secure network. Furthermore, these systems must be updated frequently as new technology becomes readily available and vendors release updates to security solutions.
With more SMBs expanding to ecommerce, it’s vitally important to protect all data as various states and countries have different requirements in terms of data protection. For example, Massachusetts enacted a law on March 1 requiring any data pertaining to its residents be placed behind a firewall and monitored by an IT worker at all times.
In recent months, companies have experienced massive failures of their security systems resulting in large-scale data breaches. These events are partially responsible for the increased security standards being implemented. Furthermore, it’s important for SMBs to protect all their data to prevent failure. A report from Hewlett-Packard found 70 percent of SMBs that experience data loss go out of business within one year.