The PCI Data Security Standard, endorsed by American Express, Discover Financial, JCB, MasterCard Worldwide and Visa International, requires merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit customer payment card data to adopt information security controls and processes to ensure data integrity. Participating payment brands require PCI DSS compliance reports by a certified third-party assessor for merchants and service providers that process credit card transactions to achieve compliance.

As an Approved Scanning Vendor, Critical Watch is certified to help merchants manage data security risks and evaluate the security of their systems that store payment account data and assist them in achieving compliance with the PCI DSS.

Critical Watch has achieved approved status by subjecting their FusionVM product to rigorous testing on the council's infrastructure. In an era of increasingly sophisticated attacks on systems, the PCI DSS certification reassures merchants that they are being assessed accurately and fairly against the most current payment industry requirements.

"The PCI Security Standards Council is committed to helping everyone involved in the payment chain protect consumer payment data. By participating in the ASV certification process, Critical Watch demonstrates they are playing an active part in this important end goal," said Seana Pitt, chairperson, PCI Security Standards Council.

"We're happy to help evaluate PCI compliance as part of our suite of solutions. We've packaged our capability such that PCI assessment is embedded as an operational process, so our clients are able to utilize the PCI standard as an everyday best practice to sustain compliance and reduce risk," said Critical Watch President and CEO, David Laizerovich.