A payment gateway is an electronic service that authorizes payments on behalf of merchants through their banks or through alternative payment processors. It also enables businesses to exchange data with the credit card companies, which results in faster approvals and allows transactions across different countries and currencies. A comprehensive list of all the functions of a payment gateway can be found here.
There are many kinds of payment gateways, but credit card processing typically requires PCI compliance which is a series of best practices developed to ensure that all parties involved have secure systems.
A common analogy for the internet is this: think of it as a giant library with millions upon millions of books. Each book represents an online store or website. The library represents the internet. When you’re inside the library, you can wander around and find books on just about anything. If you want to buy a book, simply take it off the shelf and bring it to check out at the service desk.
This service desk is your payment gateway or point of sale (POS) system. It communicates with the lender to see if you have enough money in your account to cover the cost of the book, which is a transaction fee set by a credit card processing company.
When you check out at a library, you typically use your library card as identification. This library card represents internet commerce security , or PCI for short. In order for companies to accept credit cards online, they must undergo a compliance process known as PCI.
This means that in order to pass the compliance check, companies need to monitor their data networks for potential vulnerabilities , update their systems with patches and security updates, conduct penetration testing on company servers , inform customers of data breaches if any happen, encrypt sensitive cardholder information , and so much more.
What’s it like outside the library?
When you leave the safety of the library, your books are no longer checked out for you by a clerk, which means that it’s up to you to securely transport them home without damage or loss.
This is where PCI comes into play because if people want to be able to use their credit cards online, they must take responsibility for keeping their card information safe themselves. If you don’t feel like it’s your duty to protect all the books in the whole world that are in the library (the internet), then you should also not be forced to keep track of hundreds or thousands of credit card numbers either.
The way PCI works outside is that you have to encrypt all the books you want to check out and transport them securely. If someone steals a book during its journey home because you got lazy or tired, it’s your own fault . It’s only logical that if you don’t keep track of your credit card number online, no one else should be responsible for it either – which is what PCI compliance is all about.
For more information on how to implement PCI compliance, check out this website . It’s got lots of valuable resources and tips for getting started with PCI compliance. If you’d like to read up on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard itself (the law that governs all credit card processing), find it here .
In short, PCI is a series of best practices that ensure the security of systems and networks used for credit card processing. Being PCI compliant means doing a lot of work to keep financial data safe. If you don’t want to go through all this trouble, then you should have no problem with not being able to use your credit card online if you don’t want to. If you do, then it’s your responsibility as the cardholder and user of the service to protect yourself and your information.
