Tag Archives: PCI compliance

Need a QIR in South Florida?

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A certified Qualified Integrator and Reseller (QIR) is required for any third party credit card point-of-sale solution installation. Qualified Integrators and Resellers are specially trained by Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council to address critical security controls while installing merchant payment systems. Christine Speedy is located in South Florida and is QIR certified. After the sale, the same applies. No third party can modify or touch the system unless QIR certified.

The mandate is only for level 4 merchants, due to more frequent security problems. For example, 80 percent of small merchant breaches are associated with insecure POS implementation and servicing by integrators and resellers. Level 4 merchants are defined as less than 20,000 Visa or MasterCard e-commerce transactions annually, and all other merchants processing up to 1 million Visa or MasterCard transactions annually.

pci qir certified logo

The council changed the QIR certification requirements after my certification in an effort to reduce barriers to certification, both financially and with the depth of training. While QIR certification always was for individuals, they were tied to companies. The tie to companies has been removed so as QIR’s change jobs the certification is not disrupted. Due to this change, the PCI council recently updated the web site search navigation. My company used to be the first listing when you clicked on the QIR link. Now, the only way to find me or any other QIR certified person is to do a search. You can find Christine by searching for Christine Speedy in Florida.

Do you need a QIR in another state? Just ask.

Christine Speedy, Founder 3D Merchant Services, is a credit card processing expert with specialized expertise in card not present and omnichannel technology. Christine is an authorized reseller for Elavon and CenPOS products and services, in addition to other solutions.

Magento Security Alert requires action to maintain PCI Compliance

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Magento 2.3.1, 2.2.8 and 2.1.17 Security Update

A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in pre-2.3.1 Magento code. To quickly protect your store from this vulnerability only, install patch PRODSECBUG-2198. However, to protect against this vulnerability and others, you must upgrade to Magento Commerce or Open Source 2.3.1 or 2.2.8. We strongly suggest that you install these full patches as soon as you can.

PCI Compliance Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications. All critical systems must have the most recently released software patches to prevent exploitation. The average merchant relies upon third party developers for web site maintenance, but unless specifically contracted to update the e-commerce software and add-on modules, don’t count on it.

Only 16.4% of organizations that had suffered a data breach were compliant with Requirement 6, compared to an average of 64% of organizations assessed by our QSAs in 2014- Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report.

Payment gateway implementation requirements have changed over time as a result of cross-site scripting and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) to meet current PCI Compliance standards. Merchants should verify all components of their ecommerce ecosystem are current, and have a system for ongoing monitoring and updating.

RESOURCES

  • Magento Security Center
  • MAGENTO SECURITY ALERT, March 26, 2019
  • Christine Speedy, 3D Merchant Services, offers a Magento payment gateway module for merchants to improve their omnichannel customer experience and mitigate fraud and vulnerability risk. Special B2B customer benefits include friction-less payments across all sales channels; text and email Express Checkout, customer invoice portal for 24/7 ACH, credit card, wire and more payment types, and US EMV with level 3 processing. Magento and ERP modules combine to provide a powerful array of solutions to improve cash flow and profits while maximizing security. 954-942-0483.

Christine Speedy is PCI Council QIR Certified

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Christine Speedy is Qualified Integrator and Reseller certified by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. QIRs are integrators and resellers specially trained by PCI Security Standards Council to address critical security controls while installing merchant payment systems. QIRs reduce merchant risk and mitigate the most common causes of payment data breaches by focusing on critical security controls.pci qir certified logo

The council changed the QIR certification requirements after my certification in an effort to reduce barriers to certification, both financially and with the depth of training. While QIR certification always was for individuals, they were tied to companies. The tie to companies has been removed so as they change jobs the certification is not disrupted. Due to this change, the PCI council recently updated the web site search navigation. My company used to be the first listing when you clicked on the QIR link. Now, the only way to find me or any other QIR certified person is to do a search.

qir certified speedy

Before PCI QIR certification requirements change.

 

PCI QIR certified christine speedy

After PCI QIR certification requirements change.

While the Visa QIR mandate is for Level 4 merchants with card present transactions, I recommend that all merchants use QIR individuals for all transaction types. There’s a false sense of security that consultants and developers are guarding merchant security, but literally every day I find problems with companies of all sizes. Level 4 merchant is defined as less than 20,000 Visa or MasterCard e-commerce transactions annually, and all other merchants processing up to 1 million Visa or MasterCard transactions annually.

The Christine Speedy difference. PCI compliance is important to mitigate data breach risk, but equally important is compliance with complicated card network rules. Have you read any of the 1,000+ pages of Visa Rules? Or 300+ Mastercard transaction processing rules? Have any of the people you rely on? I’ve spent countless hours educating myself on them and learning about the nuances that impact your profit and risk. Technology directly impacts compliance. It doesn’t matter how big or how old a company is; the reality is most players in the payments industry fall behind with every new rule that comes out, even though these rules are usually announced years in advance so that they can prepare.

Resources:

Christine Speedy, QIR certified payments professional can be reached at 954-942-0483, 9-5 ET.

3 Ecommerce Checkout Payment Problems

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Use of a PCI compliant payment gateway does not make a company PCI compliant, compliant with card network acceptance rules, or compliant with best practices to maximize profits. In other words, if you follow best practices and comply with all the rules, you’ll have a more secure and profitable company. A key ingredient to compliance is the payment gateway, however, the payment gateway has no specific requirement to ensure your compliance with all the card network rules and best practices, just those that pertain to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.Here’s a few costly merchant problems:

  1. Lack of brute force attack tools. These help prevent bots from testing thousands or millions of cards on your checkout form. The merchant is liable for all of the attempted transaction fees on the payment gateway and on the acquiring. A simple first line of defense is adding recaptcha. See Visa best practices to prevent brute force attacks. https://usa.visa.com/support/merchant/library/visa-merchant-business-news-digest.html.
  2. Non-compliance with Visa Stored Credential Mandate, effective October 14, 2017? I’ve written extensively on this, for example here’s a B2B steps to compliance article. There are multiple elements, and many payment gateways do not yet have solutions, especially for ‘Unscheduled credential on file’. Do you have a checkbox in the sequence of checkout opting in to terms? https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/stored-credential-transaction-framework-vbs-10-may-17.pdf.
  3. Invalid authorizations. This is the most costly as it can lead to consumer generated chargeback, issuer chargeback, non-qualified interchange rates and penalty fees. Here’s a story about the new .25% MasterCard integrity fee. Do you have Standard/STD, EIRF, or Data Rate I on your merchant statement under interchange fees? Then you have an authorization problem.
  4. Cardholder authentication limitations. The security code has historically not been enough evidence to win customer disputes about unauthorized charges. With 3-D secure, fraud liability shifts to the issuer. Effective April 2019 based on region and industry, Visa mandates many merchants use Visa 3D Secure 2.0. Reference Table 5-18: Acquirer Support of Verified by Visa, Visa Public Rules.

The solution to all of the above is replacing outdated payment gateway technology with new technology that will help automate compliance with card network rules, while reducing PCI Compliance burden.

Why comply? Here’s an example of the cost difference between valid and invalid authorization.

interchange rate qualification

Resources and documentation /blog/merchant-bulletins-downloads – bookmark it!.  Join Christine Speedy’s email list.

DISCLAIMER: condensed and incomplete information! Information may be quickly outdated.

Need a solution? Call Christine Speedy, 954-942-0483, 9-5 ET, CenPOS authorized global reseller based out of South Florida and New York. CenPOS is an integrated commerce technology platform driving innovative, omnichannel solutions tailored to meet a merchant’s market needs. Providing a single point of integration, the CenPOS platform combines payment, commerce and value-added functionality enabling merchants to transform their commerce experience, eliminate the need to manage complex integrations, reduce the burden of accepting payments and create deeper customer relationships.

3 Things CPA’s Must Advise B2B Clients in 2018

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Accountants offer professional advice regarding cash flow, accounts receivable, tax preparation and all sorts of other consulting. Credit card processing and all the compliance it encompasses introduced immense new compliance challenges in 2017, and it’s fair to say, most businesses have no idea what they are, or what the repercussions are. A big problem is people think it’s someone else’s responsibility to keep their business compliant. Every single merchant must make internal changes to comply.

Three things every B2B company needs to know about credit card processing right now:

  1. If you store credit cards, you must be compliant with Visa Stored Credential Framework. This is arguably as huge as the retail shift to EMV chip card acceptance. There are significant financial and risk consequences for non-compliance. Some solutions companies reduce the compliance burden more than others, while maximizing profits and cash flow.
  2. PCI Compliance mandate for TLS disablement will disrupt business, mostly starting right now, February 2018. Businesses need to ensure they’re servers, software (if applicable) and browsers are compliant, and also have an plan to help internal and external customers overcome issues trying to login to portals, make online payments etc.
  3. It’s a Visa rules violation to request the card security code on a paper credit card authorization form, or any digital form where the business can decrypt and view it. It can’t be stored, period. Not by the merchant nor service provider, including payment gateway.

Why these 3 things? Because 100% of B2B companies I talk to will fail on at least one, and usually two or three. That includes CPA firms also. 86% of all data breaches in 2016 were from level 4 merchants, defined as “Any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 Visa e-commerce transactions per year, and all other merchants — regardless of acceptance channel — processing up to 1M Visa transactions per year.” By complying with the three items on my list, B2B companies will harden their systems and increase profits. The latter occurs because compliance with rules reduces fees. 

Example of solutions to solve these problems:

  1. An intelligent payment gateway can automate compliance with many elements of the Visa Stored Credential Framework. Simply passing data as most payment gateways do is not enough.
  2. Engage internal or external IT team to test all systems for TLS compliance, and verify at SSLlabs.com.
  3. Empower customers to self pay via push (text or email), or pull (online hosted pay page) technology so that employees never have access to cardholder data again. Whatever the old justification for using paper forms with full card data, there is a technology solution that has negated the need.

Christine Speedy, CenPOS authorized reseller, 954-942-0483. CenPOS is a merchant-centric, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. CenPOS secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships.