Payment-card-industry

Network Solutions experienced a security breach where malicious code compromised web servers, resulting in the theft of 573,000 credit card numbers over a three-month period. This attack, which went unnoticed by victims, highlights the vulnerability of online payment systems to sophisticated hacking techniques. The article advises individuals to regularly check their credit reports, recommending the official FTC website for free annual reports.

Tokenized payments utilize cloud computing to securely store customer payment data, replacing sensitive credit card numbers with tokens for transactions. This process involves sending customer information to a provider who returns a token, which is then used for future payments instead of the actual card number. Tokenization offers advantages like enhanced data security, simplified PCI compliance, reduced costs, and easier rebilling, and is offered by providers like Braintree, Cybersource, USAePay, and Stripe.

Software developers with applications processing credit cards face PCI compliance, with options being costly audits or application redesign. A simpler, cheaper approach is to remove credit card storage by using tokenization: replacing card numbers with secure tokens from a payment processor. By storing tokens instead of credit card numbers, applications can achieve PCI compliance without extensive audits and maintain rebilling functionality.

Storing sensitive customer data locally for rebilling purposes creates PCI compliance challenges, leading many merchants to seek alternatives. Merchant account providers offer a solution by securely storing customer payment information and issuing a customer ID or token. This allows merchants to rebill customers using just the ID, simplifying PCI compliance and streamlining recurring transactions.

Storing customer credit card information is now heavily regulated by PCI, making rebilling challenging for merchants aiming for compliance. A solution is to utilize a PCI-approved third-party payment processor to securely store card details and issue a customer ID in return. This approach allows merchants to rebill customers using only the ID, thus achieving PCI compliance by avoiding direct storage of sensitive cardholder data.