Small retail businesses (commonly defined as Level 4 merchants) are popular targets for hackers attempting to compromise payment card data, In an attempt to protect small merchants from vulnerabilities caused by improper or faulty set-up of their payment technology systems, Visa has established new requirements to ensure both U.S. and Canadian small merchants take steps to secure their point of sale (POS) environment. It is important that you understand the new requirements and how they may impact your business.
Effective January 31, 2017, all small business Level 4 merchants are required to use only Payment Card Industry (PCI) – certified Qualified Integrator and Reseller (QIR™) professionals from the QIR Companies list at the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) website for POS application and terminal installation and integration. The list can be found by clicking here.
For MicroBiz merchants using OpenEdge for integrated processing, OpenEdge can provide access to QIR resources from its in-house staff and /or network of QIR-certified client partners. Starting January 1, 2017 MicroBiz will be limited on the assistance that it can provide to support payment terminals sold and supported by vendors other than MicroBiz.
Please note that merchants utilizing single use terminals without Internet connectivity are considered low risk and may be excluded from these requirements. Additionally, for merchants not using a third party contractor for terminal installation, integration or maintenance, will not be subject to this requirement.
While Visa has always required Level 4 merchants to comply with PCI DSS, after January 31, 2017 Visa will also require all Level 4 merchants to validate their PCI Compliance annually to better ensure card data security. Our integrated payment partner OpenEdge is offering a service named PCI ASSURE to help simplify PCI compliance with online access to security self-assessment questionnaires, regular system scans and a cyber breach protection benefit. For more information, please visit the OpenEdge online resource center by clicking here or give your OpenEdge representative a call. |