PCI-DSS Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
The PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) ensures the safe handling of sensitive information and is intended to help organizations proactively protect customer account data. For providers that don’t monitor or have access to customer data, applicability is restricted to physical security access to customer equipment through a combination of management systems and physical access safeguards and procedures.
HIPAA
Mandated by the U.S. Health and Human Services Dept., the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 specifies laws to secure protected health information (PHI), or patient health data (medical records). When it comes to data centers, a hosting provider needs to meet HIPAA compliance in order to ensure sensitive patient information is protected.
A HIPAA audit conducted by an independent auditor against the OCR HIPAA Audit Protocol can provide a documented report to prove a data center operator has the proper policies and procedures in place to provide HIPAA hosting solutions.
No other audit or report can provide evidence of full HIPAA compliance.