I have done many in depth articles about PCI Scanning, and have learned so much about this confusing topic although I know that there is still so much to learn. I mainly focused my previous articles on one topic or term relating to PCI Scanning, but I decided that some people don’t like to read 10 articles just to get the basic information they are looking for. That is why for this article I thought that I would just do an overview of the basic terms that someone who is just starting to research PCI Scanning might want. If nothing else it might help you understand other articles you might read on PCI Scanning a little better since you will be more familiar with the lingo.

PCI Standards: The PCI Standards are a group of requirements that most online businesses must comply with in order to accept any type of credit card information.

PCI DSS: Stands for payment card industry data security standards. It was created by the PCI Security Standards Council to make using and storing credit card information more secure for both the business owner, the customer, and the credit card companies.

PCI Security Standards Council: A council created from the five major credit card companies, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and JCB who got together to create one unified group of standards that all businesses that use credit cards must comply with.

Vulnerability Assessment: A preventative tool that is used to find and fix any problems on a site that might allow an intruder to get to their sensitive information. One type of vulnerability assessment would be PCI Scanning.

PCI Certified: If you are PCI Certified that means that you have successfully filled out A Self Assessment Questionnaire as well as passed the scan and have complied with all the PCI Standards and will continue to be protected.

PCI Compliance: This is when you comply with all of the PCI Data Security Standards.

Merchant Level: Your merchant level is based off the number of transactions your business completes per year. This is used to figure out how in depth your PCI Compliance process will be.

Self Assessment Questionnairre: This is a questionnaire about your current security practices that must be filled out once a year once you are PCI Certified.

Approved Scanning Vendor: A company that provides PCI Scanning for online businesses that is approved by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Assessment Scan: A scan that goes over your server to find any problems that might let something unwanted through that could cause you future security issues.