“(. PCI DSS requirements…) are very costly to implement, confusing to comply with and ultimately subjective, both in their interpretation and application. It is often said that there are only twelve “requirements” for PCI compliance. In fact, there are over 220 sub-requirements; Some of them can be incredibly heavy for a trader and many are subject to interpretation. [18] A: The PCI DSS 3.3 requirement states: “Hide the PAN on screen (the first six and last four digits are the maximum number of digits to display). While the requirement does not prohibit printing the full card number or expiration date on receipts (either the merchant`s copy or the consumer`s copy), please note that PCI DSS does not take precedence over other laws that legislate on what can be printed on receipts (such as the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) or other applicable laws). Although some states do not enforce PCI DSS compliance by law, the contract commits your organization to PCI DSS standards and there are consequences for breach of contract. So even if you don`t break the law by breaking your contract, your company could lose its partnership with PCI DSS.

The PCI Standards Council is responsible for developing PCI compliance standards. These standards apply to merchant treatment and have also been expanded to describe requirements for encrypted transactions over the Internet. Other major companies also associated with setting standards in the credit card industry include The Card Association Network and the National Automated Clearing House (NACHA). This is THE most important requirement of the PCI standard. According to requirement 3, you must first know all the data you are going to store, as well as its location and retention period. All of this cardholder data must be truncated, tokenized, or hashed (e.g., SHA 256, PBKDF2) using industry-recognized algorithms (e.g., AES-256, RSA 2048). In addition to encrypting card data, this requirement also speaks of a strong PCI DSS encryption key management process. In accordance with requirement 8, you must not use shared/group user passwords and passwords.

Each authorized user must have a unique identifier and passwords must be sufficiently complex. This ensures that whenever someone accesses cardholder data, that activity can be traced back to a known user and accountability can be maintained. All non-console (remote) administrator access requires two-factor permission. To implement strict access control measures, service providers and merchants must be able to allow or deny access to cardholder data systems. This requirement relates to role-based access control (RBAC), which provides much-needed access to data and card systems. Each company will have a slightly different idea of who should lead their PCI compliance team, depending on their structure and size. Very small businesses that have outsourced most of their payment infrastructure to third parties can typically rely on these providers to handle PCI compliance as well. At the other end of the spectrum, very large organizations may need to involve executives, IT, legal, and business leaders. The PCI Security Council has a detailed document, “PCI DSS for Large Organizations”, with guidance on this topic; Read section 4, starting with page 8.

PCI DSS is a cybersecurity standard supported by all major credit card and payment processing companies that aims to secure credit and debit card numbers. PCI DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. The standard, administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, sets out the cybersecurity controls and business practices that any business that accepts credit card payments must implement. Companies can demonstrate that they have implemented the standard by meeting the reporting requirements of the standard. Organizations that do not comply with the requirements or violate the standard may be fined. Similar to requirement 3, this request requires that you back up the card data if it is transmitted over an open or public network (e.g., Internet, 802.11, Bluetooth, GSM, CDMA, GPRS). You need to know where you are going to send/receive the card details. Primarily, card data is transmitted to the payment gateway, processor, etc. to process transactions. There are technical and operational requirements to be met, and there can be a lot to do at once.

However, non-compliance can not only affect your company`s ability to accept card payments and result in fines, but it can also lead to a loss of customer trust and brand reputation if you are violated. Before you dive into PCI DSS requirements, you should also understand how to set PCI DSS scope. It is important to reduce the scope of the PCI DSS audit as it will help you reduce your compliance costs, operating costs, and the risks associated with interacting with payment card data. Failure to comply with PCI DSS can have a negative impact on a company`s reputation and have significant legal implications. PCI DSS compliance remains paramount to prevent potential security breaches or cyberattacks. Follow compliance best practices to ensure PCI DSS compliance and minimize liability. The twelve requirements for creating and maintaining a secure network and system can be summarized as follows: A:PA-DSS refers to the payment application data security standard maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) to address the critical issue of payment application security. The PA-DSS requirements are designed to ensure that vendors offer products that support merchants` efforts to maintain PCI DSS compliance and eliminate the storage of sensitive cardholder data. This final PCI compliance requirement is dedicated to PCI DSS`s primary goal of implementing and maintaining an information security policy for all employees and other relevant parties. The information security policy must be reviewed at least once a year and communicated to all employees, suppliers/contractors.

Users must read and confirm the policy. But there`s an important distinction here: you can`t sign up all the responsibilities for PCI requirements – and you should be skeptical of anyone offering such a service. Also, if you engage a partner, be sure to clearly define each party`s responsibilities for PCI compliance in your contractual agreement and make sure you hold the partner accountable for doing their part on a regular basis. Whether you`re handling your PCI security obligations yourself or hiring a third party, increased vigilance around PCI DSS is a critical part of your organization`s security.