Prior to beginning work on this discussion forum, read Unit 4: Operating a Small Business Effectively from your course textbook, Entrepreneurship: Starting and operating a small business, and review the website PCI Security Standards Council (Links to an external site.) . As discussed in the readings, there are many legal issues that frame entrepreneurial activities, and it is incumbent on the entrepreneur to have needed and appropriate legal and business support in the form of a qualified attorney and a qualified CPA. Guessing at legal requirements is, at best, risky.

Entrepreneurs are bound by other quasi-legal requirements, and mistakes in quasi-legal areas are potentially expensive. For example, merchants of any size must comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Data Security Standards (DSS) from the PCI Security Standards Council.

Enter the website PCI Security Standards Council (Links to an external site.) and do the following:

• Read the Who We Serve and What We Do sections on the website, which is located on the Get Started menu in the Overview tab.
• Read about two or three additional topics that appeal to you.

After reviewing the website, create a discussion post in response to the following:

• PCI compliance is not a legal mandate. As such, assess the risks of noncompliance with the PCI standards.
• Determine how an entrepreneur might discover other mandates that, while not embodied in the legal code, require compliance.

Offer a link to a video or an article that provides additional information about the PCI standards discussed above or about other binding standards not part of the legal code.