Heritage Bank Gets Certification

Heritage Bank Limited said it recently received the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certification, in addition to the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 award.

The PCI DSS is a proprietary information security standard for organisations that handle branded credit cards from the major card schemes including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB.

The PCI DSS, administered by the Security Standards Council, offers robust and comprehensive standards and supporting materials to enhance payment card data security.

These materials include: a framework of specifications, tools, measurements and support resources to help organisations ensure the safe handling of cardholder information at every step. The keystone is the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which provides an actionable framework for developing a robust payment card data security process -- including prevention, detection and appropriate reaction to security incidents.

The standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud via its exposure. Validation of compliance is performed annually, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) that creates a Report on Compliance (ROC) for organizations handling large volumes of transactions.

According to a statement from the bank, the certification was in recognition of its commitment to effective and secured financial system which has put the bank in the league of big players in the industry and confer internationally-recognised standard on its operations.