We notice you are visiting from a U.S. Internet provider. 
27/07/2010 -
Retailers, payment processing companies and others are learning how to implement and accommodate new security practices to protect consumers and lessen their PCI compliance burden.Tokenization is a process that replaces personal account numbers in databases with values or symbols that protect against theft and fraud, DarkReading.com writes.
One of tokenization's greatest benefits is that it reduces the need for costly PCI audits. John Kindervag, an analyst for Forrester Research, told the source that tokenization can actually eliminate a retailer's obligation to meet PCI standards.
"The big benefit is it reduces your scope of PCI compliance ... because you have outsourced or eliminated all of your cardholder data, so therefore you're not obligated to comply with PCI," Kindervag told the site.
Earlier this month Visa released a best practices guide to help merchants, payment processors and acquirers understand tokenization and how to use it in compliance with PCI standards. By following the company's guide, retailers will be able to eliminate or reduce the amount of cardholder information they must store while protecting cardholders.
