PCI is a standard originally developed by Visa and was extended to Mastercard and American Express. It has become a worldwide information security standard assembled by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). The standard was created to help organizations that process card payments prevent credit card fraud through increased controls around data and its exposure to compromise.
Validation of compliance can be performed either internally or externally, depending on the volume of card transactions the organization is handling. Compliance must be assessed annually.
