CSR gains patent for PCI ToolKit

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted data privacy solutions provider CSR a patent on Nov. 7, 2012, for its PCI ToolKit. This was in recognition of the innovative nature of the ToolKit's questionnaire and attestation method, according to CSR. The patent is U.S. Patent No. 8,296,244.

The PCI ToolKit is a web application designed to assist merchants of all sizes in complying with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS). Specifically, it helps with completion of the annually mandated Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) by eliminating "the need to decipher complicated and confusing rules, regulations and forms, helping payment processors generate revenues while managing portfolio compliance," according to CSR.

Via an automated process, using layman's terms and presenting only questions that pertain to a given merchant's business, the PCI ToolKit guides merchants through the SAQ. Then "it identifies areas of noncompliance, weakness and risk, automatically generating simply-worded policies and procedures, email reminders, and remediation instructions with deadlines, all while tracking progress on the merchant's dashboard," the company reported.

A long time coming

In a press release about the patent, CSR President Rick Heroux stated, "We engaged in an arduous five-year long process to obtain our patent, answering many questions and making a number of filings to achieve this milestone. In the end, the examiners at the United States Patent Office thoroughly vetted CSR's system and method against patents and claims of similar inventions and determined that our system is truly one-of-a-kind.

"We are proud to achieve this milestone, and assure our clients, colleagues and future clients that they can have confidence in our expertise to provide what is, to our knowledge, the only PCI compliance solution that is patented."

CSR noted that it has several other patents pending, including one for its CSR Breach Reporting ToolKit service, which assists organizations of all types in complying with complex data breach notification rules and regulations.

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