If you’re running an eCommerce website, it’s important that you have a secure payment processing system in place. Not only do you need to protect your customers’ sensitive financial information, but you also need to comply with industry regulations. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through what’s required to process payments securely on your website.

PCI Compliance
If you’re going to be processing payments on your website, you need to be PCI compliant. PCI compliance is a set of security standards that are designed to protect cardholders’ data. These standards are developed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

There are four levels of PCI compliance, based on the number of transactions your business processes per year: Level 1 (more than 6 million transactions), Level 2 (1-6 million transactions), Level 3 (20,000-1 million transactions), and Level 4 (fewer than 20,000 transactions). Depending on your business’s level, there are different requirements for compliance.

Depending on your business’s size and transaction volume, you may need to have a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) assess your compliance. QSAs are independent firms that have been approved by the PCI Security Standards Council to validate an organization’s compliance with PCI DSS.

If you’re not sure if your business needs to be PCI compliant or not, you can contact your bank or payment processor. They should be able to tell you what’s required.

SSL Certificates
Another important piece of the puzzle is an SSL certificate. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It’s a security protocol that’s used to establish an encrypted connection between a web server and a web browser. This is important because it ensures that all data that’s exchanged between the two is protected from interception and tampering.

In order for an SSL connection to be established, the web server must have an SSL certificate installed. These certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities (CAs). When a web browser connects to a web server that has an SSL certificate installed, the browser will verify the certificate’s validity and then establish an encrypted connection.
Once the connection is encrypted, all data that’s exchanged between the web server and the web browser will be protected from interception and tampering. This is important because it means that sensitive information like credit card numbers and passwords will be safe from hackers.
Installing an SSL certificate on your website is relatively easy; most hosting providers offer them as an add-on service. Once you’ve purchased an SSL certificate, your hosting provider will send you instructions for installing it on your server.

If you’re running an eCommerce website, it’s important that you have a secure payment processing system in place. In order to protect your customers’ sensitive financial information and comply with industry regulations, you need to be PCI compliant and have an SSL certificate installed on your server. Fortunately, both of these things are relatively easy to do; most hosting providers offer PCI compliance services and SSL certificates as add-ons. By taking these steps, you can give your customers peace of mind knowing that their information is safe when they make a purchase on your website.