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Welcome to the Mr. Knickerbocker PCI Compliance Information Page
- What is PCI?
- PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. This is represents all the major credit card agencies in the United States. Members include:
- Visa
- MasterCard
- American Express
- Discover
- PCI Compliance Standards were issued by the industry after a rampant series of series breaches into credit card databases by companies such as
T. J. Max and J. C. Penny, in which Millions of credit cards numbers and identities were compromised. The Standards reflect the very best in industry
security standards, and are only a required minimum, with many companies going well beyond the requirements.
- PCI Compliance is a requirement by the industry, and is mandatory as of April, 2009, with businesses not compliant facing fines, revocation of ability to use/accept credit payments, and total liability for funds if they are compromised.
- The Current PCI Compliance standard is the "Data Security Standard version 1.2" or DSS 1.2 for short.
- Mr. Knickerbocker, Inc has always taken your privacy and security seriously and has been a top priority since inception of our taking credit card numbers via phone and online.
- That does this PCI cover in regards to purchases?
- The PCI Standard is not a law, nor is it enforced neither by the government of any U.S. State nor by the United States
Government. It is an industry only contract of sorts, in that we must agree to do what they say in terms of data security to use their service of
issuing credit and receiving and paying for credit purchases.
- This covers all manner of businesses that use credit cards, regardless of how big or small, from the small mom & pop shops, to the large corporations like Wal-Mart.
- A few points of advice to help you in your buying online, in-store, or over the phone:
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A site that is PCI Compliant will usually have a method of telling you they are. If you look in the address bar where
you type in where you want to go, you may notice what looks like a padlock in the right corner, or a long green bar with the sites name in the left
side of the address bar. You may also notice icons, images or, more correctly "Security Seals" on the site you are browsing. If you do not
notice these, the site is most likely not secured. Do not mistake a web site that is "VeriSign, or SiteSafe" to be PCI compliant, this merely means they encrypt your data when they send it across the internet. Most hackers and thieves on the internet do not rely on intercepting data, as it is usually encrypted and not worth they're time. They will usually try to hack into the stores network (brute force or just "hacking"), or impersonate a client and request sensitive data, through what is called "Social Engineering". Mr. Knickerbocker takes steps to mitigate this threat
significantly, and you are reminded, that no transaction is ever safe, not even in-store, at any location anywhere, but steps can be taken to make it nearly impossible for you to be compromised.
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Regardless of what you hear in the media, the chances of this happening to you are as much as getting struck by lightning, as long as you take common sense into play when you shop.
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The Seal below is what is listed on our web site. It is a good example of what you should look for on any web site.
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