The importance of PCI DSS in Online Casinos
By fulfilling the PCI DSS standards, a company takes appropriate measures to protect its customers’ data from cyber theft. This has a high impact on the trustworthiness of an online casino and, most importantly, the safety of their players as it protects them from online fraud. The consequences of a successful cyber attack are far-reaching, such as the potential loss of sales, customers, reputation, and trust, to name but a few.
When it comes to online credit card payments, data breaches occur more often at smaller companies or online casinos. Usually, this is because they are less well-equipped when it comes to online security measures. Obviously, it can also happen on well-established websites but the data shows that this is way less likely to be the case.
How does an Online Casino become PCI DSS Compliant?
Online Casinos that want to become PCI DSS must make sure that payment data is captured, stored, and organized properly. Some operators are using third-party companies that assist them in setting up an adequate structure. Then service providers measure compliance by checking the relevant infrastructure against the common standard. This is defined as follows: "The standard requires merchants and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who are involved in the storage, processing or transmission of cardholder data to:
- Build and maintain a secure IT network
- Protect cardholder data
- Implement a vulnerability handling program
- Use strong measures in access control
- Monitor and test networks regularly
- Maintain an information security policy.”
Compliance Tests and Audits
To make things as easy as possible for online casinos, PaySquare has set up an online questionnaire that operators can use to demonstrate annually whether they meet the PCI DSS safety regulations. The questions apply to the casino's specific business situation. Some online casinos have to perform an assessment on location, however. After an on-site assessment has taken place, the casino site can submit the assessment report to PaySquare via an online PCI DSS tool. The exact process can vary and depends on the location of the company, the size of the business, transaction volume, and various other factors.
