Can A Secure Credit Card Payment Be Hacked?

Many people wonder if a secure credit card payment can be hacked. While we'd like to think that our personal information is always safe, the answer is yes, they can. Most of the time, secure credit card payments are just that, and the information is safe. Sometimes though, hackers are able to access the information through a database hack, or intercepting the data as it makes its way across the Internet.

Fortunately for consumers, there are a set of standards which most online retailers and large companies follow, known as PCI compliance. PCI, or Payment Card Industry, are standards used by all five major credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB) to protect consumer data and assist with fraud prevention. If a business is not following PCI compliance and lets their customer's data become compromised, they can expect to pay fines of anywhere from $20 to $30 per stolen credit card number. These fines can top out at $500,000. If for some reason the amount of information stolen is even larger than that, an audit may take place, at the cost of $10,000. The PCI Data Security Standard, or DSS, is designed to help cover all business security vulnerabilities so as to keep consumer information safe.