After the first day on the island which is located off the east coast of Africa, close to Madagascar, it is very easy to take up the pace (or rather lack thereof!) and do nothing at all if you want to but there is quite a lot of attractions to keep one busy and involved (reading a good book on the beach is keeping busy too right?)
We had a beach party the first night and met great people from over the world.The next day we got a taxi to drive us around the island which is about 21 miles wide and 30 miles long so it did not take long but the driver was a very decent man and stopped every so often to show us various things to make the trip more interesting. We learned a lot from him. Bookings like this can all be done through the hotels as well as several boat and fishing trips.
A memory that is still as clear today as when it happened, is the day we went deep sea fishing. My husband was one of three guys and three English girls that did the actual fishing. A few of us just lazed around on the top deck which was an experience in itself especially when they were trawling (going slow to lure the fish) and as I am sure you are aware, Mauritius is a excellent spot for Marlin fishing. Anyhow, after a long quiet with nothing happening and everybody falling asleep, the outriggers sounded and when I looked up I saw something that I will never forget and that not a lot of people have the privilege of seeing in person: a 310 lb. Marlin tail walking!
Needless to say, I was dumb- struck and we were all mesmerized by the fight this big one put up. The guy who's turn it was to fish, wanted to give up at one point even though he was a young, strong guy, but my husband boosted him and 58 minutes later the marlin was on board. I had very mixed feelings. I was glad for the guy who got his prize (and what a trophy it was!) but being a scuba diver, it broke my heart to see that splendid fish killed for the delight of man. One consolation was that the hotel we stayed at used all the fish and elected superior slices to dish up to all of us who had a celebration lunch the next day. It is worth bringing up that the guy who caught the marlin, could not even cut his fish he was in so much discomfort after the long struggle!
I am sorry to say though that when we went back to Mauritius a few years later, the scenery has altered a lot because of tourism, which is their main income. There were many more beautiful hotels, but also a lot more street sellers and less coral that was still in tact, which was very troubling. I suppose as in many other uncorrupted places, tourists have taken their toll by not valuing the earth and the beauty she has to offer and also the culture of the country they are traveling to. Thus, I will ask: please wherever you go, leave only your footprints and take only pictures that our children's children will have the privilege of and seeing what we saw the way it was before.
This part 2 of a two part series about cost of PCI Compliance. This month we will take a look at look at the cost of software and hardware upgrades. Software and hardware upgrades may be necessary if you store secure credit card data in house. Gartner estimates that a company with 100,000 credit cards on file will pay $6 dollars in encryption costs per card. Alternatively, merchants can use technologies such as tokenization where the data storage is remote, which typically have per transaction fees instead of upfront costs. All of these estimates exclude the cost of labor and the opportunity cost of pursuing other profit-making endeavors.
Smaller restaurants and retailers that only have a single terminal or POS system are still required to become compliant. In order to learn how to become PCI compliant they need to fill out the Self Assessment Questionnaire, but the compliance process is usually much less involved. Merchants that are using POS systems to process credit cards need to make sure they are not improperly storing prohibited card data and need to verify that their vendor is PABP compliant (soon to become PA DSS). To verify that your POS system is not storing prohibited information and is compliant, see the updated list published in November 2007. Some merchants such as Brad Friedlander, a restaurant owner in Cleveland with two stores, paid $50,000 on technology upgrades to become compliant. Any merchant that accepts, stores, or processes credit card information is required to already be compliant.
The Card Associations have determined specific dates about when merchants need to validate compliance. Level 1 merchants were required to validate compliance by 9/30/07. Level 2 are expected to validate PCI Compliance by 12/31/07. Level 3 and 4 validation deadlines will come, but at this point they have been left up to the merchant's specific acquirer to be determined. Not only is becoming compliant not optional, but Card Associations have threatened larger merchants with the imposition of monthly fines until compliance is obtained. They've also threatened to increase the cost of interchange, which would increase these merchants' processing costs. But perhaps most importantly, the Card Associations will levy fines and penalties if a merchant is not PCI Compliant at the time of breach. The fines can be devastating to merchants. I've written about two breaches, both of which had significant consequences. One merchant is large, the other is small.
In addition, merchants face remediation and discovery costs can be just as costly, if not more so, than the fines. For a cumulative number, Gartner estimates that the cost of a data security breach can range from $90 to $305 per customer record. Some merchants are frustrated about the PCI requirements, while others see them as basic security requirements that should already be in place. A common misconception is that compliance equals security, but a number of recent breaches have proven that not to be the case.
Both Francina Smit & Bryan Johnson 01 are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Francina Smit has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Businesses, Web Development and Home. Ina Smit is an experienced traveler who has vacationed in 17 countries, staying in topnotch resorts and is regarded as an authority on the subject of Travel.