My Spring Break

I should take spring breaks off more often, because my spring break was great.  Here are some of the highlights:

• House/Animal sitting for friends
• Had dinner at new friends’ house
• Took my wife out on sushi, movie and yogurt dates
• Grilling a ton of meat with friends
• Working out a lot to loose the extra meat and winter coat
• Ran soccer drills with Brent at the park
• Dropped almost a grand on new tires for the Avalanche
• Spent a few days with my nephew John
• Nerf wars with John and Brent
• Playing soccer with Casey and John at the park
• Riding the rail and visiting the Dallas Zoo with Casey and John
• Ate way too much at a Chinese Buffet
• Played XBox with Brent
• Played more XBox with Brent
• Fixed my busted sprinklers in between trips to Lowes
• Dog sat for someone I didn’t know
• Had dinner with old friends Mason and Brenna
• Read multiple periodicals and a couple books
• Helped Casey’s granny move and spent time with family
• Attended first ever FC Dallas soccer game and firework show
• Counseled a couple for 6 hours ultimately reconciling their weekend and separation desires
• Grew a full beard
• Rarely ever thought about work
• Enjoyed lots and lots of time with my incredible wife

All in all, time well spent.

PCI Compliance

Why

Complying to PCI defined standards is crucial for retail shops that accept credit cards.  The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. The organization was founded by American Express, Discover Financial Services, JCB International, MasterCard Worldwide, and Visa Inc. Therefore, if you would like to work with the major credit bureaus compliance is, as I said, crucial.

 

How

The Council has has defined and published a standard called PCI DSS, which is the global data security standard adopted by the payment card brands for all entities that process, store or transmit cardholder data. It consists of common sense steps that mirror security best practices.

 

Build and Maintain a Secure Network

1. Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data

2. Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters

 

Protect Cardholder Data

3. Protect stored cardholder data

4. Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

 

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program

5. Use and regularly update anti-virus software or programs

6. Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

 

Implement Strong Access Control Measures

7. Restrict access to cardholder data by business need to know

8. Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access

9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data

 

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

10. Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data

11. Regularly test security systems and processes

 

Maintain an Information Security Policy

12. Maintain a policy that addresses information security for all personnel

 

References

PCI Security Standards Council - https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/