TrustedSite found the following in its 2022 study on consumer trust: Credit card theft remains a top concern For online customers, business legitimacy comes next.
In fact, the Baymard Institute found that: 18% of customers Even if they add a product to their cart, they may abandon it due to a lack of trust in the website.
If you have a WooCommerce store, how do you build that trust?
PCI-DSS compliant. Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) gives your customers peace of mind when doing business. Needless to say, it’s required if you store, transfer, or process payment card information.
Read on to learn why PCI-DSS compliance is important, what you need, and how to make your WooCommerce store PCI compliant.
The importance of PCI-DSS compliance
Compliance with PCI-DSS benefits both customers and business owners. Customers can shop freely without worrying about credit card theft. In contrast, business owners experience fewer cybersecurity attacks due to increased security.
In addition to benefits, payment method support typically requires PCI-DSS compliance. For example, Mastercard states that “all merchants that store, process, or transmit cardholder data must be PCI compliant.”
Let’s take a closer look at PCI-DSS requirements.
PCI-DSS requirements
The Payment Card Industry Standards Security Council (PCI SSC), formed by Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, and Discover, outlines the following 12 requirements in its report: PCI DSS Quick Reference Guide:
- Set up a strong firewall to protect your payment card information.
- Use unique passwords for all systems that have access to payment card data.
- Configure security protocols to protect payment card data while at rest.
- Transfer card data between networks using a secure, encrypted channel.
- Run regular security scans to protect your system from malware and viruses.
- Choose a secure system and make sure to close all security holes.
- Restrict access to data to only the people and systems that need it.
- Implement authentication measures for data access within relevant systems
- Restrict physical access to credit card data.
- Track all network activity regarding credit card data.
- Perform regular security audits.
- Keep employees up-to-date on information security best practices according to established policies.
In other words, the PCI Security Standards Council requires that comprehensive security upgrades be implemented to protect cardholder data.
Get PCI Compliant Hosting from Nexcess
Keep your store secure and your credit card information secure
How to make your WooCommerce store PCI compliant
Now that you know why PCI compliance is important and the requirements you must meet, let’s take a look at how to make WooCommerce compliant from a PCI-SSC perspective.
Determine the level of compliance required
First and foremost, you need to determine the level of compliance you require. This depends on the number of transactions you process each year.
At the time of writing, Visa and Mastercard define merchant compliance levels as follows (Level 1 is the most stringent):
- Level 1—Sellers with more than 6 million annual transactions.
- Level 2 — Sellers with annual transaction value of 1 million to 6 million.
- Level 3—Sellers with 20,000 to 1 million transactions per year.
- Level 4—Sellers with fewer than 20,000 transactions per year.
However, if you accept JCB or American Express, you may have to deal with even fewer transactions and more stringent requirements. For example, American Express requires Level 1 compliance for 2.5 million transactions per year, while JCB requires Level 1 compliance for over 1 million transactions.
Your Seller Level determines whether you submit a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) or undergo an assessment by a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).
Audit current processes
WooCommerce PCI compliance is dependent on the payment process, as WooCommerce itself does not store payment card data.
For example, if you Direct customers to your payment gateway websitecustomers do not enter sensitive data on the website and you do not touch the website either.
This occurs when using WooCommerce PayPal payment plugins such as Nalgene.
When a customer clicks, PayPal Clicking the button will direct you to the PayPal server.
This may allow you to escape strict PCI-DSS regulations, but it is not a personalized payment option.And taking that into account 49% of customers It’s better to have a personalized checkout experience because personalization can turn you into a repeat buyer.
For example, if you use Stripe, you can customize the front end to suit your needs, such as Wet and Wild Beauty. You can also rely on Stripe’s servers to accept payments off-site.
In this case, stripes Collect card numbers and other data via secret tokens, the data never accesses the server. However, malware can block customers’ connections to her Stripe servers and steal payment card data, so you may need to take additional steps to make your WooCommerce store PCI compliant.
Stripe is a good alternative, but it charges 2.9% + 30 cents for every successful transaction. These charges can add up and impact the bottom line of enterprise businesses that handle many orders.
That’s why large WooCommerce stores often choose custom payment gateways to reduce fees. For example, check out World Vision’s donation page.
in this case, The online store processes your payment card data and stores it for future use.which is subject to strict PCI compliance requirements.
If your WooCommerce store does something similar, it must maintain the security standards required by PCI SSC. Failure to do so may result in fines or suspension of support for your payment method.
Set up security measures
Depending on your current process, you may need to:
Add SSL certificate
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encrypts data transmission between your browser and your web server. If you ask a customer to enter payment card details into a native form on your website, you need to ensure that the payment card data remains encrypted during transfer to be PCI-DSS compliant. there is.
In fact, we recommend Add SSL certificate Most browsers flag websites without an SSL certificate as unsafe, so you can access all websites whether you manage an e-commerce store or not.
Adding an SSL certificate builds trust between your customers. If you’re hosting your website on another host and aren’t ready to switch, SSL certificate From Nexus. Otherwise, you can get SSL for free on all products. Hosting plan required.
Choose PCI-compliant hosting
Most PCI-DSS requirements are about data security, so PCI compliance is highly dependent on your hosting provider. This means you need to look for a PCI-compliant web hosting provider.
When looking for a PCI-compliant host, make sure your web host offers the following:
- powerful firewall: Robust firewalls keep malicious agents away from your card payment data and keep it safe. Ensure that hosts define access network security controls that only allow relevant traffic to come into contact with sensitive data.
- malware scan: Hosting plans should come with automatic malware scanning to protect cardholder data. You also need protection against malicious bots, suspicious activity, and brute force attacks.
- secure network: Make sure you can trust your hosting provider to handle security steps on your side, from regular software updates to custom code reviews.
- physical access is restricted: Hosting providers must follow strict security policies where employees are only allowed access to sensitive areas when necessary. In addition to that, you need visitor logging, site-wide monitoring, and restricted access to network controls.
With Nexcess, it’s fun PCI compliant hosting Across all hosting plans. It meets all your hosting requirements so you can run your business stress-free.
Implement website security policies
According to Verizon, 82% of data breaches There was a human element involved. To prevent your WooCommerce store from suffering a data breach due to human error, you should implement a website security policy that protects your store from the most common security flaws.
First, implement two-factor authentication (2FA). That way, even if a hacker obtains your username and password through a phishing attack, he won’t have a second authentication factor to access your data.
Additionally, implement access control systems to restrict access to sensitive data when necessary. Not all employees should have access to all data.
in addition, For added security, you can also set up your WordPress website to send a password change reminder to your users every 90 days.
Submit compliance documents
Once you have implemented your security protocols, you can report compliance to the relevant payment processor (bank or payment gateway).
Compliance is typically reported in the following ways:
- Submit a self-assessment questionnaire*: Levels 2-4 merchants complete the following to report compliance: Self-evaluation questionnaire (SAQ).
- If you want to direct customers to your payment processor’s website, you would use SAQ A.
- If you use a service like Stripe to tokenize payment card data, use SAQ A-EP.
- If you want to process payment card data and store it on your web server, use SAQ D Merchant.
- Obtain quarterly network scans from an approved scanning vendor: To check for external vulnerabilities, you should undergo quarterly scans by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV). Typically, ASVs scan for defects, report them to help fix them, and rescan before reporting compliance results.
- Submit a certificate of compliance: After complying with all requirements, you typically submit an Attestation of Compliance (AOC) to declare compliance with PCI-DSS requirements.
* Level 1 merchants require an external assessment by a qualified security assessor (QSA).
In addition to it, hosting provider SAQ-D.
Final Thoughts: A Business Owner’s Guide to Becoming WooCommerce PCI Compliant
PCI-DSS lists several requirements that you must comply with to provide support for a variety of payment methods to your customers. However, PCI-compliant hosts allow you to uncheck most boxes and deal with limited liability.
check out Enterprise hosting you need Enjoy 100% PCI compliance. And it doesn’t end with just being compliant. You also get 100% network uptime, daily backups, and more.
Check out our plans to get started today.
