It is well known by now that the major credit card companies have collectively mandated that all members, merchants and service providers storing, processing or transmitting cardholder data must adhere to the Payment Card Industry (PCI)'s "12 commandments" -- the dozen overarching best practices that make up the guideline -- or else risk possible fines and even the termination of credit card processing privileges. In addition, by Sept. 30, 2007, all Level 2 organizations -- merchants processing more than 150,000 Visa or MasterCard transactions each year or merchants that process more than 1 million transactions annually -- must be compliant with these standards. Unfortunately, the path to PCI DSS compliance can be demanding due to the amount of money, time and effort required.

This learning guide will review a few of the more challenging PCI DSS requirements and provide some tips that enterprises can use to achieve PCI DSS compliance.