You run a retail business. Every day your register processes card transactions. Every swipe is data that exists on your network under legal scrutiny. The rules are called PCI compliance. Nearly every retail owner gets it wrong. What PCI Actually Is PCI stands for Payment Card Industry. The standard is PCI DSS: Data Security Standard. Credit card companies created it after massive breaches cost them billions. Violate PCI and your processor shuts you down. Insurance denies claims. Customers sue you. Chargebacks drain accounts. What PCI Actually Requires Card data isolated. Not on same network as Wi-Fi or email. Access controlled. Not everyone sees transactions. Transactions logged. Prove who accessed what, when. Network monitored. Watch for suspicious activity 24/7. Strong passwords. Multi-factor authentication. Data encrypted. In transit and at rest. The Usual Failure Points Unencrypted Wi-Fi – register processes cards on open network. No segmentation – POS, office computer, camera all same network. Card data storage – registers store history locally. Weak passwords – everyone knows register password. No monitoring – nobody watches network. What Your Business Should Do 1. Ask processor what applies to you 2. Segment network – card data on protected lane 3. Encrypt everything – wireless, stored, backups 4. Enforce authentication – MFA everywhere 5. Get monitoring – watch network constantly 6. Get someone accountable – IT person or managed service Cost of compliance is fraction of breach cost.