The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS) are a broad set of requirements for protecting payment account data security. PCI, which is governed by the independent PCI Security Standards Council, was co-developed by the giants of the payment industry as a standard for consistent data security among the participants in payment transactions and includes requirements for security processes, policies and countermeasures to protect applications and networks. Recent estimates state that the cost of compliance with PCI DSS can reach as high as $10 million for companies with a large volume of credit card transactions.
