What is PCI-DSS? Know the 12 Requirements for PCI Compliance
Harsh Sahu
CTO
April 2024 | 6 mins
According to Verizon, 84% of data breach cases occurs in payment account data. It is no surprise that the number of organization achieving 100% PCI DSS compliance has increased from 27.9% in 2019 to 43.4% in 2020. And the numbers are expected to increase every year.
In this blog, we will cover all the requirements you need to know to get your PCI security compliance. Let’s dive in.
PCI-DSS is an actionable framework for developing a robust payment account data security process, including prevention, detection, and appropriate reaction to security incidents. PCI DSS was developed to encourage and enhance payment account data security and facilitate the broad adoption of consistent data security measures globally.
PCI-DSS provides a baseline of technical and operational requirements designed to protect payment account data. While specifically designed to focus on environments with payment card account data, PCI DSS can also be used to protect against threats and secure other elements in the payment ecosystem.
PCI-DSS is part of a larger group of security standards, categorized into one single standard called PCI SSC standards.
PCI-DSS compliance by an organization is maintaining robust security measures for protection of payment account data, such that it fulfils all the 12 requirements of PCI DSS standards.
Payment account data includes the full primary account number (PAN), any other elements of cardholder data that are present with the PAN, and any elements of sensitive authentication data.
PCI DSS compliance, often also called credit card compliance, has become non-negotiable as there is a global acceleration of cashless transactions, which puts payment systems in the crosshairs of criminals looking for easy money. Payment account data is their number one attraction. They all seek the simplest path to steal payment account data used by payment cards and related electronic payment systems.
Now the main question that arise for organizations is: “How do I protect my customer’s payment account data?”. And the answer lies in getting payments compliance or PCI compliance.
The overall organizational goal of PCI security compliance is to develop, maintain and continuously improve a mature control environment that offers reasonable assurance for the effective, ongoing protection of payment card data in a consistent, reliable and sustainable manner.
This goal is often not met due to lax security, which enables criminals to easily steal and use personal consumer financial information from payment transactions and processing systems.
Lax security brings vulnerabilities, which may appear anywhere in the card-processing ecosystem, including but not limited to:
• point-of-sale devices;
• cloud-based systems;
• mobile devices, personal computers, or servers;
• wireless hotspots;• web shopping applications;
• paper-based storage systems;
• the transmission of cardholder data to service providers;
• remote access connections
Vulnerabilities may also extend to systems operated by service providers and acquirers, which are thefinancial institutions that initiate and maintain the relationships with merchants that accept payment cards.
Compliance with PCI DSS helps to alleviate these vulnerabilities and protect payment account data.
PCI DSS standards applies to all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data (CHD) and/or sensitiveauthentication data (SAD) or could impact the security of the cardholder data environment (CDE). Thisincludes all entities involved in payment account processing – merchants, processors, acquirers, issuers,and other service providers.
Cardholder data and sensitive authentication data are considered account data and are defined as follows:
PCI DSS requirements apply to entities with environments where account data (cardholder data and/orsensitive authentication data) is stored, processed, or transmitted, and entities with environments that canimpact the security of the CDE.
Some PCI DSS requirements may also apply to entities with environments that do not store, process, or transmit account data – for example, entities that outsource payment operations or management of their CDE.
PCI DSS requirements may not be applicable, for example, if the entity does not store PAN, then the requirements relating to the protection of stored PAN in Requirement 3 will not be applicable to theentity.
Fulfilling PCI DSS requirements is like giving helmets to your business. As you expand and grow in your business, especially those involved in payment card data processing, it becomes essential to protect them.
This protection ensures the business runs at its optimal speed, while being a strict follower of the requirements of PCI DSS. Verizon calls this as psychology of risk compensation.
The 12 requirements for a successful PCI compliance are:
#1 Install and maintain network security controls
#2 Apply secure configurations to all system components
#3 Protect stored account data
#4 Protect cardholder data with strong cryptography during transmission over open, public networks
#5 Protect all systems and networks from malicious software
#6 Develop and maintain secure systems and software
#7 Restrict access to system components and cardholder data by business need to know
#8 identify users and authenticate access to system components
#9 Restrict physical access to cardholder data
#10 Log and monitor all access to system components and cardholder data
#11 Test security of systems and networks regularly
#12 Support information security with organizational policies and programs
For better understanding, below is a summed up table of the 12 requirements with the business goals it fulfills.
The fines vary according to business and it depends on various factors as well. But here is a brief table on how the range of pci dss non compliance penalties look like:
According to Statista, the number of cashless transactions in 2023 was 1,335 billions and is expected to increase to 2,297 billions by 2027. This rising numbers means that malicious actors will keep a keen eye on exploiting this growth for their own financial motives.
Organizations need a better security and protection of their customer’s account data and PCI-DSS compliance aids in that. To better understand your security posture and know how you can quickly get your PCI-DSS certification using OptIQ’s Compliance Management Toolkit, contact sales@optiq.ai.
PCI-DSS compliance secures cardholder data, reducing fraud and enhancing customer trust. It boosts your business reputation, provides a competitive edge, and prevents costly fines associated with data breaches.
Businesses must validate their PCI-DSS compliance annually through self-assessments or audits. However, maintaining ongoing security measures and frequent monitoring is essential to address emerging threats.
Businesses often struggle with the complexity of PCI-DSS standards, integrating security into existing systems, and ensuring continuous employee training. Keeping pace with evolving security threats requires consistent updates to security practices.
No business handling credit card information is exempt from PCI-DSS, regardless of size. Small businesses process fewer transactions, which may simplify compliance via a streamlined self-assessment questionnaire.
