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PCI compliance regulations were enacted by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) to enhance data security and minimize fraud. Technically, these guidelines aren’t mandatory. Nonetheless, any card-accepting business must comply with them lest it be subjected to litigation, account termination, or fines if fraud occurs within its cardholder environments.
PCI compliance shouldn’t be a new concept if you run an e-commerce business or a WordPress website. Like other online merchants accepting credit cards as a payment method, you should be PCI DSS-compliant. Likewise, if your WordPress e-commerce website uses third-party payment gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, some PCI DSS compliance regulations apply to you.
Generally, merchants are responsible for handling, processing, and storing their clients’ credit card information. Therefore, you are also responsible for any fraudulent activity that results from that. PCI DSS guidelines are meant to protect your e-commerce WordPress website and its customers from fraud.
Why PCI Compliance is Important to e-Commerce and WooCommerce WordPress Sites
WooCommerce WordPress websites should consider PCI compliance a fraud protection strategy for your online store. Your website needs to be compliant because you don’t get to meet your customers face to face, so you cannot independently verify their identities. According to market insights, 60% of cyber-attacks target small online businesses, such as your e-commerce WordPress website.
Becoming PCI-compliant can help you secure your customers’ payment card data. Since most WordPress WooCommerce websites use third-party payment gateways, the PCI regulations that apply to them are more relaxed than those that apply to more prominent merchants. Compliance is often attained by completing a standard Self-Assessment Questionnaire and audit.
WordPress PCI Compliant: How to Protect Yourself
If you are a WordPress e-commerce merchant, you shouldn’t overlook PCI compliance requirements since it minimizes the risk of hacking your website. It would be best to start your compliance journey by choosing a PCI DSS-compliant payment processor.
If your chosen provider doesn’t follow data security best practices, you can be left vulnerable. This highlights the significance of selecting payment processors who can guarantee secure customer data through payment gateways. Here are the steps to make your WordPress e-commerce website PCI DSS-compliant.
Determine Your Compliance Level
PCI DSS ranks merchants at different levels. Your level is determined by the number of transactions your e-commerce WordPress website handles. Once you determine your compliance level, it will be easier to identify the guidelines you should follow. Generally, most e-commerce WordPress website owners are considered Level 4 merchants.
Fill Out a Self-Assessment Questionnaire
After determining the compliance level for your business needs, you should complete a self-assessment questionnaire. This will help you determine the current risk exposure of your website and hosting provider. Most questions will require straightforward yes or no responses.
Approved Scanning Vendors
Your vendors can put you at the risk of cyber-attacks. Although it isn’t mandatory, you should consider including an approved scanning vendor that uses automated tools to pinpoint potential vulnerabilities in the payment gateway or payment processor.
Update Yourself on Security Policies
To achieve and maintain PCI DSS compliance status, you should be aware of the latest regulations that apply to your website. Therefore, you should be mindful of access control, strong passwords, security patches, data breaches, information security, WordPress updates and maintenance, malware scanning, and antivirus protection. If you have any employees, they should be trained to handle credit card data and card details correctly.
Implement SSLs
Secure Sockets Layer Certificates (SSLs) are add-on credentials that let online shoppers know they have direct and encrypted connections with your site (rather than copycat websites). Once you install an SSL certificate, your e-commerce WordPress website’s domain will start with “https” instead of “http.” With an SSL certificate in place, all communication between your WordPress site and its visitors will be encrypted.
Seek Further Verification Details from Shoppers
WooCommerce PCI compliance for Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express requires cardholders’ names, account numbers, and card expiry dates for online sales to go through. These are the bare minimum, and they do not guarantee protection against fraud. Ask shoppers to provide additional authentication details at checkout to prevent fraudulent purchases. This may include card number verification values and billing addresses.
Use the Right Tools and Plugins
Contrary To what you might think, WordPress isn’t PCI-certified. However, this e-commerce platform was designed with security in mind. For instance, WordPress has admin controls that allow website owners to restrict access for individual users. When you use this tool, cybercriminals will not get hold of payment card data and payment information.
Install and Maintain Firewalls
The primary PCI DSS requirement is the protection of cardholder data. PCI DSS compliance isn’t just about your WordPress e-commerce site. It covers all aspects of the enterprise’s physical and IT security. Besides configuring firewalls for your WordPress website, you should also configure and use firewalls for your home, office networks and public networks for secure physical access. PCI DSS also requires all users who access your cardholder data to have personal firewalls on their computers.
Avoid Using Vendor-Supplied Defaults
Hackers will easily access your cardholder environment if you use vendor-supplied defaults for security parameters such as system passwords. It would help if you always changed default vendor passwords and enforced policies for better WordPress security measures. This also applies to default configurations and software installations.
Malware Protection
PCI DSS requires you to maintain a vulnerability management program to ensure your system isn’t vulnerable to particular attacks and protects against all malware threats. Keeping your anti-virus software up-to-date helps you prevent new threats. Moreover, PCI DSS requires you to secure systems for all your applications and software. Moreover, your software and applications shouldn’t contain any vulnerabilities.
Identification and Authentication of Access to System Components
PCI DSS also recommends authentication methods restricting access to crucial system components within the cardholder environment. It stipulates that users should always be authenticated whenever they access cardholder data. All sensitive data, user account pages, administrator consoles, and other critical entry points should be protected using robust authentication methods, including two-factor authentication.
All individuals who require access to your WordPress WooCommerce store, admin portals, network devices, business data, and customer portals should have inimitable credentials. This is essential because you won’t be forced to track user activity in the site’s activity log. Likewise, you should ensure that the credentials never get shared, which can lead to many security issues.
Even as you work to secure your cardholder environment to attain PCI DSS compliance status, you should never forget to review existing infrastructure. This entails implementing security policies to ensure a secure network and web hosting environment. Likewise, always ensure that your WordPress security policies are applied. This will help you attain and maintain your PCI compliance status.
Ensuring your WordPress e-commerce store becomes PCI-compliant and safe would be best. You’ll have to meet many requirements, which may sound overkill. Nonetheless, PCI DSS requirements are meant to help rather than curtail your business operations. It would be best to start taking care of basic PCI DSS requirements so that as your e-commerce business grows, you won’t have any problem adapting to new regulations.