DSS.

Data Security Standard (DSS) is a set of security standards designed by Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to make sure that credit card information is secured. The DSS was designed and administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council to protect payment systems from breach and theft of data.

The standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud. Validation of compliance is performed annually, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) or by a firm specific Internal Security Assessor that creates a Report on Compliance for organizations handling large volumes of transactions, or by Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for companies handling smaller volumes.