A Peek at PCI DSS

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

Information security standard that ensures all companies who accept, process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment

Set of 12 security requirements, including the technical and operational standards to best secure and protect credit card data.

CATEGORY	CRITERIA	REQUIREMENTS
Level 1	Any merchant having more than six million total combined Mastercard and Maestro transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 1 criteria of Vista Any merchant that Mastercard, in its sole discretion, determnes should meet the Level 1 merchant requirements to miniize risk to the system	Annual PCI DSS assessment resulting in the completion of a Report on Compliance (ROC)1
Level 2	Any merchant with more than one million but less than or equal to six million total combined Mastercard and Maestro transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 2 criteria of Vista	Annual Self-Assessment Questionaire (SAQ)2
Level 3	Any merchant with more than 20,000 combined Mastercard e-commerce transactions annually but less than or equal to one million total combined Mastercard and Maestro e-commerce transactions annually Any merchant meeting the Level 3 criteria of Vista	Annual Self-Assessment Questionaire (SAQ)3
Level 4	All other merchants	Annual Self-Assessment Questionaire (SAQ)3