A self-regulatory system that provides an enforceable security standard for payment card data. The rules were drafted by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which built on previous rules written by the various credit card companies. Except for small companies, compliance with the standard requires hiring a third party to conduct security assessments and detect violations. Failure to comply can lead to exclusion from Visa, MasterCard or other major payment card systems, as well as penalties.

Acronym(s): PCI-DSS