What Does The New Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Mean For Your Adult Site?
Understanding the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) is crucial for businesses that handle payment card information, especially as they recently released a new 4.0 version of their standards that all online companies must comply with. As an adult site owner, these standards play a vital role in setting out your responsibilities as an online business in protecting and safeguarding the data of your customers.
In a time when the world debates age verification, data protection, and safeguarding in the adult entertainment industry and people seek to scam and steal the information of users on porn sites via harmful malware and viruses, making sure that you are following the rules and staying up-to-date on data security is important for maintaining your business.
In this article, Adult Site Broker seeks to explain what the new Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards are after their latest update and what they mean for you and your adult website.
What Is the PCI DSS?
Created in 2004 by Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express, the PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. The PCI DSS aims to create a framework that protects the entire card payment process, including storing cardholder data and accessing private payment data. Complying with these standards is essential for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining consumer trust.
Over the years, the PCI DSS has evolved to ensure online sellers have the systems and processes to prevent data breaches. In 2024, a new 4.0 version of the PCI DSS will be enacted.
What Are The New Data Security Standards?
In April 2024, the PCI DSS released version 4.0, implementing a new compliance checklist for businesses to implement to protect themselves against cyberattacks. The latest update offers several new requirements for online businesses, like your adult website, to implement focused on continuous risk assessment, privileged access, and data management. But what are the main new requirements on this checklist that you, as an adult site owner, need to know about?
Although previous PCI DSS versions have focused on companies that handle credit card payments having rigorous protections in place to protect the sensitive credit card data of their customers, in the most recent version, the PCI DSS has focused on multi-factor authentication and more robust password requirements as well as placing a greater emphasis on monitoring the logging practices, empathizing a need for adult sites to have adequate tools in place to respond promptly to security threats.
Other ways that adult websites can be seen complying with these updated standards are by implementing the following 12 steps:
Firewall: To ensure that all transactions happen safely, the first step is to install and maintain a firewall on every device that interacts with cardholder data. This is to protect your network from outside threats.
Change Factory Settings: When you receive new software or hardware from a vendor, the PCI DSS has set out new requirements for eliminating vendor default settings, including setting new, strong passwords and installing multi-factor authentication for extra protection.
Data Protection: The most crucial part of the PCI DSS compliance checklist is how you store and protect cardholder data, both physical and digital. You need to know where the data is being stored clearly and for how long and encrypt all cardholder data using industry-accepted algorithms and security keys, including firewalls for all digital data.
Encryption: This step focuses on encrypting data traffic and transmission instead of the cardholder’s data. PCI-compliant encryption prevents hackers from accessing and stealing data and information during the transfer between the issuing bank and the acquiring bank as it passes through open public networks.
Antivirus Software: Although it seems like a given, another step in the PCI DSS checklist is to install antivirus software, keep it updated, and regularly run scans. This lets you stay up-to-date on potential security threats or gaps in your protection.
Secure Systems: For the smooth running of your adult site, you should implement a security checklist for your employees to protect data and ensure the security of systems and applications. It should address any vulnerabilities and advise when to update software to keep it up to date, including firewalls, passwords, and any apps you may use.
Cardholder Data Access: To reduce the chance of a breach, restrict the number of employees with access to cardholder data. PCI DSS requirements state that individuals should only access private cardholder data on a need-to-know, business-essential basis.
User Identification: You should assign a unique ID to each employee of your adult website or user with access to cardholder details. This allows you to track who has access to what and when and to track and survey any fraudulent activity.
Restrict Physical Access to Data: If you have a physical location alongside your adult site, the PCI requires monitoring of the physical data. This includes security cameras, restricting access to who has access to physical cardholder data, and the storage and destruction of physical copies and hard drives.
Track and Monitor Network Access: PCI standards require all network systems to be protected and monitored at all times, with a straightforward activity history to reference, monitor, and log any suspicious activity.
Testing: You should regularly test your security systems to find and patch up any gaps or vulnerabilities cyber hackers may use to steal data.
Create and Maintain An Infosec Policy: The final step to being PCI compliant is to establish, implement, and maintain a company-wide information security policy that covers employees, management, and relevant third parties.
These new standards aim to use the latest technological advances to tackle the ever-increasing and sophisticated cybersecurity threats websites face in 2024.
What Do These Mean For Your Adult Website?
Staying up to date on your data protection
First and foremost, this means that adult sites need to ensure they are up to date on the latest data protection tools, from setting more complex passwords and multifactor authentication to installing and maintaining antivirus software and firewalls.
As well as this, as an adult site accessible on an international scale, it is also up to you to also make sure that you are staying in line with other data protection regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, and CPRA.
Stricter rules
As card brands and acquiring banks seek to reduce the number of cyber attacks, the new PCI DSS 4.0 is setting stricter rules on all who comply. Ensuring that adult sites are not just focusing on protecting digital data but also the physical copies of cardholder details.
For many adult sites, this may feel like an already highly regulated industry is being made stricter, with payment processors, card brands, and banks seeking to set rules that focus on data protection that need to be upheld alongside the new age verification laws and data protection laws that are already in place.
What happens if you breach these new data security standards?
Card brands and acquiring banks, including Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, are within their right to fine organizations. Companies found to be in breach can face fines of up to $5000 to $10,000 per month until they have updated their data protection measures to comply with the PCI DSS.
Conclusion
If you have an adult site that handles the credit card information of your customers, then you need to make sure that you are up-to-date with the latest PCI DSS 4.0. Whether you are the proud owner of a membership site, tube site, or live cam site, understanding your responsibilities to your customers and their sensitive credit card data is vital for maintaining customer trust and compliance with legal regulations within the industry.
As the legal world tries to keep up to date with the digital world, the PCI DSS 4.0 offers some of the most stringent rules to try and fight against cyberattacks, which have become increasingly popular. These new data security standards offer you a checklist to ensure that you are protecting yours and your customer’s sensitive information.
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