[clug] The 1st Internet Tax is here.

Seth Turnbull seth.turnbull at gmail.com
Wed Nov 12 22:06:18 GMT 2008


I run a smaller Internet based information company that handles a medium
number of credit card transactions each month.
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from our transaction company that
all e-commerce computers had to conform to
this new banker / committee thought up standard. You can find the standard
here
http://www.vormetric.com/solutions/documents/Vormetric_PCICompliance_WP_11.2007.pdf
(requires
free login).

I don't mind the banking industry setting some security standards for
computers and programmers to follow. What really
floored me was the following.

They will charge as follows:
1. Up to $1,800.00 per server to test and verify your server is in
compliance.

OR

2. You can register as a "non-compliance" member and they will charge you
$20.00 per month to have online CC transactions.

There's no way around this. You will do this or you won't be able to process
Credit Cards.

While they claim they are trying to lay the burden of stolen information
back on the merchants this is in fact a forced tax.
Now not only do you have a % of your transaction to the banker you will also
have to pay a crazy testing fee or a monthly tax.


Maybe I'm fully misunderstanding this. If anyone else has more information
please reply to this with your thoughts.

Thanks
~Seth


More information about the linux mailing list