PCI (payment card industry) compliance involves adhering to standards for processing payment information online. They were established by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC). PCI DSS aims to enhance controls and protection around cardholder data while reducing credit card fraud. Pursuing PCI compliance is therefore crucial for companies to safeguard payment information and mitigate fraud risks.
PCI DSS
All merchants handling credit card data must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), encompassing those who collect, store, process, or transmit such information. The PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) outlines mandatory compliance requirements tailored to e-commerce merchants, including detailed guidelines, considerations, and reporting procedures. Given the extensive reach of PCI DSS requirements and their diverse applications, many merchants operating e-commerce websites seek clear guidance on achieving PCI compliance.
We all know that achieving PCI Compliance for a company can lower the risk of a security breach. There are seemingly endless requirements to follow in order to be considered compliant by the PCI Security Standards Council. With so many requirements, how can companies, especially larger ones be sure that they are in line with all of them? The answer is to work with a qualified security assessor to determine compliance.
External security vulnerabilities can happen at any merchant level. The PCI Security Standards Council requires companies at all merchant levels to have regular network scans in order to detect possible vulnerabilities before hackers do. These scans are conducted by a PCI certified Approved Scanning Vendor. The following sections will describe what an ASV is and how they work to help companies achieve PCI compliance.
The average cost of a data breach in 2017 was $3.62 million with 5,076,479 data records stolen on average every day. In order to protect your company and not fall into one of those costly statistics, it is important to know where the danger lurks. Below we will discuss the ways breaches happen and what steps you can take to try and avoid a credit card data breach.
The PCI 4.0 requirements were made publicly available in March 2022. They cover most of the same ground as prior versions’ requirements, with special attention paid to common areas of security like risk mitigation and access control. Compliance requires implementing all PCI 4.0 requirements.
In the world of financial transactions, the acronym PCI is the most common term used and refers to the Payment Card Industry. (The longer version is PCI DSS, or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.) The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was created in 2006. Its goal as a global entity is to help improve the security for every aspect of the financial transaction process. In the past the object for security concerns were mainframe computers that could fill a room. Technology has evolved from those huge mainframes to personal computers, to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The ways hackers threaten an entity’s data have changed as well; but of course, the need for protecting that data has remained unchanged. Keep reading to learn more about the PCI security council and avoiding a credit card data breach.
PCI SSLC firms help organizations achieve and maintain compliance with:
- Initial preparation, including scoping out implementation
- Strategic oversight and program advisory for overall governance
- Implementation or mapping assistance, including remediation
- Assessment and reporting on compliance for validation
- Ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting support
There are four critical factors that should guide your search for a PCI ASV:
- Understanding why you should seek guidance and work with an ASV
- Knowing where to look for an ASV—namely, the PCI ASV list
- Identifying what qualities make an ASV the right fit for you
- Considering other elements of compliance and governance
There are four pillars to successful and efficient preparation for PCI SSF compliance:
- Understanding the scope of the SSF, including both component frameworks
- Meeting the requirements of the Secure Software Standard
- Implementing the Secure Software Lifecycle framework
- Conducting an assessment for validation with a PCI-listed assessor