TotalFBO Complies with PCI Credit Card Security Standards

Horizon Business Concepts, a leader in aviation business management software development, has announced its popular TotalFBO product is the first aviation business management software program to become compliant under the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Council’s new industry security standards for processing credit cards.

The announcement comes as major oil companies begin enforcing deadlines over the next several months on FBOs and other service providers to cease use of non-PCI-compliant software and hardware.

For the more than 1000 aviation users and subscribers who rely on TotalFBO to manage internal operations including accounting, this means they can process customer credit cards with confidence. Their systems are compliant with Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) certification.

“Any aviation service company who accepts credit cards and does anything other than swipe the card through a Verifone machine has a challenge to demonstrate they are PCI-compliant,” Horizon vice president George Lehmann said. “The aviation industry really has their hands full to educate the masses as to the need and importance of becoming PCI-compliant.”

According to Lehmann, the major credit card companies, including American Express, Visa, Mastercard and Discover, began working together in 2004 to create a greater level of consumer credit card protection by ensuring merchants meet minimum standards for processing, storing and transmitting cardholder data. With the new standards now in place, merchants can no longer capture, transmit or store critical customer credit card data, including the entire credit card number, unless strict encryption and operations guidelines are followed using certified software. Non-compliant companies that maintain a relationship with a branded card, either directly or through an acquirer such as a major oil company, risk losing the ability to process credit card payments and being audited and/or fined.

In an effort to help educate the industry, Horizon will conduct an in-depth seminar on PCI compliance as part of its annual TotalFBO Users Conference scheduled for Sept. 17 and 18 in Kansas City, Mo.

Visit totalfbo.com for more information.