PCI Security Standards Council

PCI Data Security Essentials for Small Businesses

Interactive Guides

Information is presented in a simple, step-by-step format to help small business owners quickly understand their systems and take appropriate action in a timely manner.

Interactive Guides

Information is presented in a simple, step-by-step format to help small business owners quickly understand their systems and take appropriate action in a timely manner.

Interactive Guides

Information is presented in a simple, step-by-step format to help small business owners quickly understand their systems and take appropriate action in a timely manner.

Interactive Guides

Information is presented in a simple, step-by-step format to help small business owners quickly understand their systems and take appropriate action in a timely manner.

Print handbook

Each of the four guides had a print version printed in an easy-to-use spiral format.

Infographic

Infographic design depicting the stark reality of cybercrime and how to prevent it in your business.

Content portal

Landing page to access each of the four guides, digital or printed.

Social media

A key component to this effort was social media. Influencers shared images and content developed for this campaign to engage small business owners to the importance of safeguarding their payment systems.

Social media

Helping small businesses stay safe

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI) is a global organization founded by the four major credit card issuers to help businesses establish best practices in the area of payment security. These measures give businesses the ability to better detect, mitigate, and ultimately prevent cyberattacks and fraud.

PCI turned to Vision to develop a solution specifically focused on small merchant owners and operators to help them identify their type of payment systems and how to take steps to guard those systems against security breaches and protect their customers’ card data.

Because more than 60% of small businesses have experienced at least one data breach, keeping their payment systems safe and secure is in most cases a matter of survival. With 14 different types of payment systems that cover an extremely wide range of sophistication, the challenge for merchants to educate themselves about the threats can be daunting. Not only did the solution need to be easy to use and comprehend but it also had to convey a sense of urgency, and because the size and types businesses can vary dramatically, we needed to deliver the experience in a variety of vehicles and media to accommodate as many types of users as possible.

The solution was to develop a series called “Data Security Essentials for Small Businesses.” The series was developed as an interactive digital experience as well as in print.

Components included:

Guide to Safe Payments - A simple guide for understanding the risk to small businesses, security basics to protect against payment data theft, and where to go for help.
Common Payment Systems - Real-life visuals to help identify what type of payment system small businesses use, the kinds of risks associated with their system, and actions they can take to protect it.
Questions to Ask Your Vendors - A list of the common vendors small businesses rely on and specific questions to ask them to make sure they are protecting customer payment data.
Glossary of Payment and Information Security Terms - Easy-to-understand explanations of technical terms used in payment security.

The series was promoted through social media across all PCI channels as well through influencers in the global small business community during Small Business Week and beyond.

SERVICES

User experience design (UX)
User interface (UI)
Print communications
Social media