Protect your Business and Customers with PCI-DSS Compliance as the deadline is approaching

Is your ability to process credit cards at risk?
Companies must be using a PCI-DSS compliant payment application by July 1, 2010, according the PCI Data Security Standards.

What is PCI-DSS Compliance?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard established a set of requirements for enhancing the data security of payment accounts. The far-reaching requirements include standards for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design, and other measures created to protect customer account data.The developers of the PCI-DSS (American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa International collaborated on the standards in order to facilitate global adoption of consistent data security measures. There are 12 requirements that fall into six categories:

1. Build and Maintain a Secure Network: Install and maintain a firewall and use unique, high-security, passwords with special care to replace default passwords.
2. Protect Cardholder Data: Whenever possible, cardholder data must not be stored. You must also encrypt any data passed across public networks, including your shopping cart and web-hosting providers.
3. Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program: Use anti-virus and keep it up date. Develop and maintain secure operating systems and payment applications.
4. Ensure the applications you use are compliant (see www.visa.com/pabp). Implement Strong Access Control Measures: Access to cardholder data – both electronic and physical – should be on a "need-to-know" basis. Ensure those people with access have a unique ID and password. Do not share logon information.
5. Regularly Monitor and Test Networks: Track and monitor all access to networks and cardholder data. Ensure you have a regular testing schedule for security systems and processes including firewalls, patches and anti-virus.
6. Maintain an Information Security Policy: It's critical that your organization has a resource for governing your company’s data security. Ensure you have a policy and that it's disseminated and updated regularly.

We've created an online resource center to document PCI-DSS, and to assist you to achieve compliance before the deadline. Visit the resource center.

How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process

Control Internal Processes and Leverage a Lean Quality Compliance Process For Your Business  

"Using the uniPoint Continuous Improvement Suite, we discovered that we were spending $6,000 per month, or $72,000 per year in Quality costs that we had no way to track before. A small improvement in these areas helped us pay for the software many times over, and in a few months." - Mike Malone, Quality Manager, J.R. Stephenson 

Success stories like this one are the reason why we are inviting you to join us for our upcoming webinar, 'How to Manage a Lean Quality Compliant Process', on June 16th at 2pm ET.

We have retained Jill TerSteeg, quality standard compliance expert from uniPoint Software, to share her expertise in quality and lean processes, and to discuss the business value organizations can derive from a quality compliance process.  More about Quality Compliance webinar

The HR Compliance Regulations You Should Be Aware Of...

Government regulations in the HR arena are increasingly posing threats to midsized businesses, when these businesses are not aware of those that they should comply with. You definitely would not want to find  out if that was the case the hard way, i.e. through imposed fines, or employee lawsuit. While the following is not a comprehensive list, use the list as a starting point to determine if you should explore an HRMS.

Government laws and regulations form an increasingly burdensome and complex compliance environment for many midsized businesses. While
the following is not a comprehensive list, important legislation that may pertain to your workforce includes: Most of the regulations above involve significant reporting requirements.

Continue Reading HR Compliance Awareness article >>>

Welcome to our Newest Clients

We are pleased to welcome our newest customers into our group, and want to extend a sincere "thanks" for the trust and confidence these clients have shown in us:

Bucky’s Muffler, a Computer Accounting Systems Client
Twenty20, a Computer Accounting Systems Client
Custom Carbide, a Preferred Logic Client
Belknap White Group, a WAC Client
Posco, a WAC Client

WAC Consulting Group 367 West Main Street Northborough, MA 01532

Robert Distler rdis@wacinc.com