The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) requires that any merchant who accepts, processes, stores, transmits sensitive credit card information must do everything possible to protect and guard that data. Proper data security and storage, however, can be a difficult thing to do in-house.

Data security and storage comprise a major portion of the PCI DSS and is also a necessary part of maintaining trust with your customers. In an age where personal information is a valuable commodity, customers need to know that their transactions are secure and you have a priority on guarding their personal data.

The third requirement of the PCI DSS states simply: "Protect stored cardholder data." This may be a simple thing to say, but that doesn't necessarily make it an easy thing to implement, nor does it downplay the importance. There are quite a few individual security controls that are required before you can say that you have created the proper data security and storage environment.

The first step is encryption. If you must store sensitive information on your own system you must encrypt it. This is a basic step because if a criminal intruder should happen to bypass all the other security measures that are in place, all they will find on your system are strings of random gibberish that are useless without the encryption key.

The next step is to limit the amount of cardholder data on your system. This includes only keeping the data that is absolutely necessary for legal, business, or regulatory purposes. When you don't need it anymore, get rid of it. The less you have that is worth stealing, the less of a target you become. There are also a few things you're not allowed to store at all. These include the full contents of any track from the magnetic stripe (like the card verification code or PIN verification value), or the three or four digit validation codes or personal identification numbers.

Of course, even if you've taken the steps to electronically protect data by encrypting it, there's still the possibility that someone inside the company could steal or wrongfully employ the encryption keys. For that reason, the third requirement of the PCI DSS also mandates protecting those keys against misuse and disclosure.

Access to these keys must be restricted to the fewest number of people possible. These keys must also be stored in as few places as possible. Backups are, of course, necessary, but if you end up backing it up in too many places, you're likely to forget where they all are, or accidentally place one where someone with criminal intentions can get a hold of it.

Requirement numbers seven, eight, and nine also deal with limiting physical access to cardholder data. These mandate that you restrict access to this data by to business need-to-know, and that you assign unique IDs to each person with computer access. These are measures that help ensure that you can trace the source of your problem, should a breach occur.

There is another option for proper data security and storage that simplifies all these security controls. Simply don't store any data on your own system. Remote storage is becoming a very popular option for merchants who are worried about attacks on their system and possible security breaches.

The only way to ensure that your data security measures are effective is through constant monitoring and management. The unfortunate truth of the matter, though, is that most merchants simply don't have the time or resources to efficiently and actively control the security on their systems.

But there are companies out there now who specialize in providing effective data security and storage. Remote storage on these systems is one of the best ways to protect sensitive data and take some major steps toward becoming PCI compliant.

Above all, remember that these steps are about more than simple compliance. As consumers grow more weary about who they give their information to, it will be more and more important to guarantee the safety of their personal data.