Security shift

In 2026, credit card compliance has shifted from a "checklist" mindset to a model of continuous security. The most significant change is the full enforcement of PCI DSS v4.0.1, which requires businesses to move away from legacy habits—like touching a customer's physical card—toward automated, hands-off environments. Which is where Rundoo shines!!!

More on PCI-DSS

1. The "Hands-Off" Standard

The modern gold standard is that you should never handle a customer's card. Touching a card or manually typing numbers into a terminal increases the risk of "friendly" fraud, accidental data exposure, and physical skimming.

• Customer-Facing Terminals: Merchants are now expected to provide customer-facing hardware where the buyer inserts, taps, or swipes the card themselves.
• Reduced Liability: By not touching the card, you reduce your exposure to claims that your staff "skimmed" the data or misused the information.
• Clean Desks: Compliance now discourages even the presence of pens and paper near terminals to prevent staff from "writing down" card details for later entry.

2. Why Signature Capture is Obsolete

You may have noticed that most modern terminals no longer ask for a signature. This is because major card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Discover) officially phased out the requirement in 2018, and it is now considered an ineffective security measure for several reasons:

• EMV Chip Technology: The embedded chip creates a one-time-only encrypted code for every transaction. This is mathematically impossible to forge, whereas a signature is easily faked.
• Ineffectiveness: Most cashiers are not handwriting experts and rarely compared the signature on the receipt to the one on the back of the card.
• Faster Checkout: Removing the signature step speeds up the "line speed" at retail locations without decreasing security.
• Real-Time Monitoring: Banks now use AI-driven fraud monitoring that looks at spending patterns and geolocation, which is far more accurate than a visual signature check.

3. The Dangers of "External" Data Storage