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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 mimunum, with many companies
going well beyond the requirements.
-
PCI Compliance is a requirement by the industry, and will become
mandatory in 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 1.1" or DSS 1.1 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.
-
What does this PCI cover in regards to
purchases?
- The PCI Standard is not a law, nor is it
enforced 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 shop, to
Wal-Mart.
- A few points of advice to help you in your buying online, in-store, or
over the phone:
-
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 secure. Do not mistake a website
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
theives 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.
-
Regardless of what you hear in the media, the
chances of this happening to you are as much as getting struck by lighting,
as long as you take common sense into play when you shop.
-
The Seal below is what is listed on our
website. It is a good example of what you should look for on any
website.
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