Is your business PCI compliant? Avoid fines for breaches!

Major breaches like TJMaxx and Target have been widely publicized in the past, but breaches at smaller businesses have received very little attention. This is mainly because information about these smaller occurrences have been very hard to come by due to two reasons.

First, not all states have disclosure laws requiring merchants to disclose breaches and secondly, card associations are not required to disclose individual cases.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, most breaches come from small businesses who are not up to date with technology or compliance laws. Here are some of the article highlights:

• More than 80% of the credit card breaches have occurred at small businesses.
• Visa levied $3.3 million in fines for non compliance against small businesses in just one year.
• MasterCard did not disclose their fines.
• Any business that accepts credit cards must agree to be PCI complaint.

Take for example the case study of Lodi Beer, a microbrewery and restaurant in California who unknowingly stored 11,728 credit card records in their point of sale system. (Track data from the credit card's magnetic strip cannot be stored according to PCI standards). When that data was breached, Visa and MasterCard fined Abanco, the restaurant's merchant account provider, $27,000. Abanco then in turn passed that fine onto the restaurant. In addition to the fines, this merchant has spent over $50,000 in remediation costs, legal fees, upgrades, etc. That is a huge amount of money for a small business. Had they been up to date with their technology, this situation could have been avoided.

Here are some interesting facts that you should know about PCI compliance standards:

• Visa, MasterCard and the other card brands have put the responsibility  of maintaining compliance status on the processor or merchant account provider. They've successfully done this with a policy of making them responsible for paying fines when breaches occur.
• While these processors are responsible for fines, they will almost always pass whatever they're fined onto the merchant.
• If merchants are ultimately responsible for the fines, it is their responsibility to maintain PCI standards and stay up to date with their technology.

IES would love to help you become compliant. Give us a call at 781-816-9437 or check us out online at iesAdvisors.com.

Less than 1 month until EMV kicks in...is your business ready?

If you are a business owner, you should have heard by now that the United States is transitioning to full adoption of EMV chip enabled cards to reduce credit card fraud. The change is coming October 1, 2015.

How could EMV affect your business?
Today, if businesses swipe a counterfeit or stolen card, the bank assumes the loss. To encourage businesses to adopt the more secure technology of EMV chip cards, a liability shift is going into effect on October 1, 2015, where card issuers plan on shifting that loss to merchants.

What do I need to do?
Your credit card processing company should have contacted you by now to inform you of the changes and schedule new equipment to be delivered. (If they have not, you may want to call them). Depending on the company you use, that equipment may or may not come with a charge.

Do I need to switch all my equipment to EMV technology?
This scenario is most likely for small business owners who are being forced to pay for new equipment. It's just a matter of risk measurement...Consider the amount of your typical sale - are your customers buying a $10 pizza or a $500 laptop? Do you personally know most of your customers? What percentage of your customers use credit cards?

Will it be illegal to run a credit card without using EMV technology?
No, it will not be illegal to run a credit card using a typical mag card reader; just be aware that in the case of a charge back or fraudulent use, your business will be forced to take the loss not the bank.

If your business is facing challenges with EMV, give IES a call at 781-816-9437. We can answer your questions and help streamline the change, should you choose to upgrade.

WiFi is now free when you visit the UK, if you have a MasterCard.

Using your phone or tablet when you're overseas can be pretty pricey. Luckily, for everything else there's MasterCard, as you can now enjoy free Wi-Fi in the UK thanks to the card in your wallet.

Credit card and payment services company MasterCard has signed up with British Wi-Fi provider The Cloud for free Internet connection in thousands of public places. The Cloud is a company providing Wi-Fi hotspots around the UK in public places including shops, bars, food places and train stations.

Download the MasterCard Priceless London WiFi mobile app, available now from Google Play or the Apple App Store, and you'll be able to wirelessly connect to the Web at no cost while in the UK.

So when you're on your holiday -- that's British for vacation -- or traveling for business, you can check email, catch up with your social media friends or even just find your way about without racking up huge data roaming charges or burning through your phone plan's data allowance. It also helps you sidestep extortionate WiFi fees from your hotel.

The app also offers deals and promotions based on where you are with MasterCard's Priceless Cities program. If you are planning on using the app, it's important to note that MasterCard says you have to download it and register for the service while you're still at home, before you travel -- so plan ahead and contact MasterCard for more details.

Source: Yahoo Tech