PCI DSS Compliance: 12 Key Requirements for Organizations

Quick Summary: PCI compliance is necessary to avoid penalties and disruption to your business. However, achieving compliance can be a bit confusing without a proper understanding of it. Explore PCI DSS in detail with information on achieving compliance with this easy-to-follow guide. Read on to know more!

PCI DSS is a mandatory compliance for organizations that allow online transactions and process cardholder data. It is necessary for every organization, irrespective of the size and the volume of transactions.

PCI DSS provides many rules and practices for organizations like data encryption, strong access control, regular monitoring, and more that help protect cardholder data. It enables organizations to demonstrate their commitment to protecting data and ensuring customer trust.

If you are wondering how this works and how you can achieve compliance for your organization, this blog is for you. It provides detailed information about PCI DSS and the necessary requirements that you must fulfill to make your organization comply with this regulation.

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What is PCI DSS Compliance?

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a mandatory regulatory framework for organizations that store, process, or transfer credit card data. PCI compliance aims to protect cardholders from fraud and data breaches. This regulation applies to all kinds of companies that handle credit card data.

It creates a minimum standard of data security. PCI DSS enhances the security of data and ensures customers’ trust in the payment system. The standard was created by PCI SSC (Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council), which was formed by card companies like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, JCB, and American Express.

When an organization is PCI compliant, it can use the PCI badge to demonstrate that using cards is secure on its website. It assures cardholders that their card is securely handled and processed.

Why is PCI Compliance Important for Your Organization?

Whether it’s about processing online payments or providing subscription-based services, there are multiple reasons why organizations need credit card information. However, organizations need to protect this data while collecting and processing the information.

PCI DSS compliance ensures that organizations have taken adequate measures to protect this data. It defines various rules and guidelines that organizations must follow to protect this information. Failing to comply with this regulation results in drastic consequences for organizations, ranging from reputational damage and penalties to legal actions.

Organizations that don’t meet requisite security standards are surely going to lose their customers to those who adhere to such standards. Besides, organizations failing to meet compliance can also face customer lawsuits in case of a data breach.

They also lose the confidence of their stakeholders, which negatively impacts their business.

12 Essential PCI DSS Requirements to Get Your Organization Compliant

There are twelve important PCI data security requirements that organizations must follow to ensure data protection and prevent fraud.

Use Firewalls

Firewalls are an essential defense mechanism against cyber threats. PCI DSS compliance requires organizations to adopt and maintain strong firewalls to secure their networks. It blocks unauthorized traffic while monitoring the incoming and outgoing network traffic.

Change Default Settings

Third-party applications and devices often come with default settings. Attackers exploit these default settings to gain unauthorized access to an organization’s network or application, causing critical security risks to cardholders’ data.

For example, attackers will try to hack an application by entering the default password if it isn’t changed. As a result, it will expose cardholders’ sensitive information. These default passwords must be changed to comply with PCI standards.

Secure Storage of Cardholder Data

Cardholder data protection is one of the most important PCI compliance rules. It emphasizes that organizations must store only the minimum cardholder data required, implement strong access control measures to prevent unauthorized access to data, and remove it when it is no longer needed.

Organizations must separate the database for card data from other network sources. They must use encryption to protect data at rest and prevent unauthorized access.

Encrypt Data in Transfer

Data transferred over the network without proper security is easy prey for attackers. Hence, organizations are advised to use strong encryption keys to protect cardholder's data in transit. Besides, they must use secure protocols that use SSL/TLS when transferring data over a network to ensure PCI compliance. They must never transfer payment account numbers in plain text.

Deploy Anti-Malware Software

Another crucial requirement for organizations to meet the PCI DSS compliance is deploying anti-malware or anti-virus software. It protects organizations from malware attacks. Malware is one of the most challenging security threats and organizations have faced billions of malware attacks in the past. Installing anti-malware or anti-virus software on every device, be it used by employees internally or remotely operated, is an important requirement in the PCI DSS checklist.

Keep Software Up to Date

Security weaknesses can arise from outdated software applications. Ensuring regular software updates is crucial to maintaining a secure environment. It includes implementing the latest security patches and updates. Regular updates help maintain the security and integrity of cardholders’ data.

Restrict Access to Data

Organizations must have a strong data access control mechanism that prevents unauthorized individuals from accessing the data. For this, zero trust architecture is the best option. This architecture is based on the zero-trust principle, which emphasizes that no user must be trusted by default, and they must be authenticated every time they access the data.

Zero trust architecture ensures robust access control on accessing data and prevents unauthorized attempts. It is also helpful in preventing lateral movement if an attacker successfully penetrates a network. Besides PCI DSS also recommends the use of multi-factor or 2-factor authentication.

Use Unique IDs for Data Access

As per the PCI regulation norms, there must be a unique ID for every user who needs access to cardholders’ data. This makes it easy to track and log each user’s activity, which further helps identify anomalous behavior that could indicate a security breach.

Apart from this, organizations should also tighten the control over shared or group accounts. They must ensure that these accounts are of a minimum in number to avoid the risk of exposing credentials.

Physical Access Controls

PCI compliance necessitates organizations to protect not only their digital environment but their physical environment, too. It emphasizes that the physical access to devices that store or process cardholders’ information must be restricted to authorized users only. Even if physical documents have card information, they must be secured with restricted access.

Monitoring and Logging

Monitoring and logging are also important activities prescribed by PCI compliance. This involves tracking the behavior of users and applications to identify any malicious activity. This allows your organization to promptly respond to cybersecurity incidents. With regular monitoring, your organization can spot suspicious activity on time before it causes a serious security risk.

Regular Security Audits

Performing regular security audits is required to ensure PCI compliance. These audits help identify vulnerabilities that can allow attackers to penetrate your organization’s network and access the cardholders’ data. Besides, it also involves assessing the security controls, firewalls, intrusion systems, and other systems.

Defining Security Policies

Another important requirement in PCI compliance is defining and documenting security policies and procedures. This document will provide a clear framework for your team to act on in case of a security incident. It helps mitigate security threats on time and avoid confusion among the team.

What Could Happen When You Are PCI Non-Compliant?

Any organization that is found to be non-compliant with PCI regulations is subject to penalties and other consequences, as mentioned below.

• Not use of card payments: Organizations that fail to comply with the PCI are not able to accept payments through credit cards. It can result in significant business and reputational loss. The organization will have to go through a PCI reassessment.

• Fines: Another penalty that the organizations face due to non-compliance is fines that range from $5,000 to $100,000.

• Mandatory examination: Merchants will have to go through a mandatory forensic examination if they are suspected of a data breach. In this case, the organization will have to bear costs based on the level at which they are, $20,000 - $40,000 for Level 2 and $120,000 or more for a Level 1 organization.

• Lawsuits: In case of a data breach, an organization will face a lawsuit due to the unfulfillment of the minimum security requirements.

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Final Thought

PCI DSS enforces strict standards that protect cardholders’ data from fraud and cyber threats. It is an essential standard for organizations processing card data like financial institutions, ecommerce platforms, and payment gateways.

These organizations need to ensure their systems are secure and continuously monitored to align with PCI DSS. ZeroThreat’s dynamic application security testing can help organizations automate PCI DSS security by uncovering vulnerabilities in applications and APIs that affect compliance.

It can precisely detect vulnerabilities across different transaction systems, customer portals, and endpoints to eliminate potential exploits. It detects 40,000+ CVEs with 98.9% accuracy to help organizations ensure robust security for cardholders’ data. Give it a shot to learn more.