Merchant Account Payment Gatways
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Self Assessment Questionnaire for PCI
The days when businesses could simply throw up a website on the internet and start collecting payments from grateful shoppers have long since passed. Today, the average internet shopper is aware of the fact that credit card theft is quite common online. That is why they are wary of any site that is not protected by an online security company.
One of the most important security services an online business can avail itself of is PCI scanning. PCI stands for Payment Card Industry scan. The service is provided by vendors on the internet whose job is to scan IP addresses that are related to your website and can be accessed by the public.
More often than not, a company's merchant service provider will request or demand that a business perform a PCI scan. A successful scan will let them know that all IP addresses that can be viewed by internet users are uncompromised or virus-free. The merchant service provider may also ask the company to complete a Self Assessment Questionnaire .
No, the self assessment questionnaire is not a psychological or professional evaluation. Rather, it is a tool to ensure that that a company is complying with the accepted Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards.
The questionnaire will often be provided by your bank or merchant service provider. There are multiple versions of the questionnaire and each of them must be passed to meet security standards. More than anything else, the questionnaire is intended to assist the merchant and ensure than everything runs smoothly.