Planning for Wireless Payment Terminals

It is important when planning for PCI compliance and the use of Wi-Fi by your organization that you consider the coming Wireless Payment Terminals.  Today, many organizations simply stop all use of Wi-Fi  and manually scan for any unapproved / rogue access points on a quarterly basis at their stores as mandated for PCI compliance.  

However, as Wireless Payment Terminals (many of which use Wi-Fi to connect to your secure payment network) become more important in delivering the best experience possible to your customers, you will need to be sure you implement a Wi-Fi security solution that not only shuts down all Wi-Fi use for now but ALSO positions your organization for use of these important new terminals operating on Wi-Fi.   This will require that you:

1. Do allow for your stores to have secure payment-specific wireless access points
2. Only allow approved Wi-Fi Wireless Payment Terminals devices to connect to your store wireless access points
3. Don’t allow unapproved devices such as terminal devices from other nearby stores or devices in customer’s pockets to connect to your store access points
4. Can monitor all wireless use in your stores to assure that the above is true at ALL times and immediately alert you when attempts are made to breach your payment network.

So don’t forget about the coming Wireless Payment Terminals when making your PCI compliance decisions around Wi-Fi!