Maltese company Kyte Consultants has been validated as a Qualified Security Assessor Company (QSAC) by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council in the US. Thus, payment gateways, processors and merchants will not have to acquire the services of an overseas firm to be certified as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant.

The PCI, comprising representatives from card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discovery and JCB, developed standards for companies that process or transmit credit card data.  The standard is called the Data Security Standard (DSS) and after implementation of the standard became mandatory all companies who manage credit card data had to comply with it.

The PCI Security Standards Council had to validate companies who are qualified to certify merchants and payment processors as being compliant to the standard. 

 On 12 February, 2008 Kyte Consultants was added to the list of Qualified Security Assessors and it is now able to provide services in Europe, including Malta.