On October 28, 2010, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 2.0 was released. There are no new requirements, mostly the PCI Security Standard Council (“Council”) made wording clarifications throughout the 12 existing requirements.

These changes go into effect January 1, 2011, but merchants don’t have to be compliant with them until December 31, 2011. The next major update is expected to be in 2013.

Here are a few significant highlights of what the PCI DSS 2.0 has…