Security & compliance
Keep cardholder data out of your environment entirely
The best PCI outcome for a government agency is a small scope. Government Window is architected so card data is captured and handled inside the compliant payment environment and never touches your systems.
- PCI compliant
- AWS hosted
- Tokenized
- Audit trails
What we operate on your behalf
PCI compliance
Government Window maintains PCI compliance for the handling of cardholder data, with continuous monitoring and improvement of the security and reliability of our systems.
Cardholder data never reaches you
Card data is captured and handled inside the compliant payment environment. Agency staff and agency systems never see or store full card numbers — which keeps your PCI scope as small as it can be.
Tokenized stored payment methods
When a resident saves a payment method for autopay, it is stored as a token. The resident sees the last four digits; nothing sensitive lives in agency systems.
Role-based access control
Staff privileges determine what each user can see and do, including whether they can process voids and refunds. Actions are recorded so audit questions have an answer.
Secure hosting on AWS
The platform runs as a SaaS solution on Amazon Web Services, with a unified approach to protecting, managing, recovering and scaling backups in the AWS cloud.
Continuous monitoring
Security and reliability are monitored and improved continuously rather than assessed once a year and filed.
What transfers to us, and what stays with you
No payment provider can carry an agency's entire compliance obligation. Here is the honest split, so your security review starts from the right place.
Government Window
- Capture and transmission of card data in a compliant environment
- Tokenization of stored payment methods
- Compliant hosting, monitoring and vulnerability management for the payment application
- Backup, recovery and scaling of the platform
- Support documentation for the components we operate
Your agency
- Physical security of counter terminals, including inspection for tampering
- Staff practices — never recording card numbers on paper or accepting them by email
- Access management for your staff accounts in the payment dashboard
- Your own attestation for the parts of the environment you operate
- Policy, training and incident response within your jurisdiction
General guidance, not a compliance assessment. Your qualified security assessor and legal counsel remain the authorities for your jurisdiction.
Ask every vendor these five questions
Including us. The answers tell you more about a payment provider's architecture than any certificate does.
- Do agency systems ever receive full card numbers?
- How are stored payment methods protected?
- What is the hosting environment, and how is it monitored?
- How are staff privileges controlled and audited?
- What documentation is available to support our own compliance work?
Read the PCI compliance explainer.
Security questions
Is the platform PCI compliant?
Yes. Government Window maintains PCI compliance for the handling of cardholder data, with continuous monitoring and improvement of system security and reliability.
Does the agency ever store card data?
No. Card data is captured and handled inside the PCI compliant payment environment. Agency staff and agency systems never see or store full card numbers.
Where is the platform hosted?
The solution is delivered as SaaS hosted on Amazon Web Services, with a unified approach to protecting, managing, recovering and scaling backups on the AWS cloud.
What uptime do you provide?
Government Window operates to 99.9% uptime, with capacity provisioned for seasonal peaks such as tax season and recreation registration openings.
How is staff access controlled?
Role-based privileges determine what each user can see and do — including whether they can process voids and refunds — and actions are recorded for audit.
Is the resident-facing site accessible?
Accessibility is a design requirement. Payment pages are built to be keyboard operable, screen-reader labelled and high contrast, targeting WCAG 2.2 AA.