Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
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Overview#

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handle branded Payment Cards from the Payment Card Industry members.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is mandated by the card brands and administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard was created to increase controls around Cardholder Data to reduce credit card fraud.

Validation of compliance is performed periodically, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) that creates a Report on Compliance (ROC) for organizations handling large volumes of transactions, or by Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for companies handling smaller volumes.

PCI DSS 4.0 #

The 12 core (PCI DSS) requirements did not fundamentally changed and they remain the critical foundation for securing payment card data. However, the requirements have been redesigned to focus on security objectives to guide how security controls should be implemented.

PCI DSS 4.0 aligns with the NIST.SP.800-63B for authentication and life cycle management. As the payments industry has gradually moved to the cloud, stronger authentication standards to payment and control access logins are necessary. '=

PCI DSS 4.0 considers:

The PCI DSS 4.0 standard is built with a Zero Trust mindset, permitting organizations to build their own unique, pluggable authentication solutions to meet the data security regulatory requirements. At the same time, authentication methods can scale to fit the company’s transaction objectives and risk environment.

Finally, PCI SSC has partnered with Europay, MasterCard, and VISA to implement the use of the 3DS Core Security Standard during transaction authorization.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Requirements#

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard specifies twelve requirements for compliance, organized into six logically related groups called "control objectives".

Each version of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard has divided these twelve requirements into a number of sub-requirements differently, but the twelve high-level requirements have not changed since the inception of the standard.

Control objectives PCI DSS requirements#

Build and Maintain a Secure Network and Systems#

Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program#

Implement Strong Access Control Measures#

Regularly Monitor and Test Networks#

Maintain an Information security Policy#

Many Versions#

"Secure Version of TLS"#

"Secure Version of TLS" is used in several of their documents which has been clarified "as defined by NIST.SP.800-52"

Multi-Factor Authentication[2]#

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirement 8.3, requires the use of Multi-Factor Authentication for all remote network access that originates from outside the network to a Cardholder Data Environment (CDE).

Beginning with PCI-DSS version 3.2, the use of Multi-Factor Authentication is also required for all administrative access to the Card Data Environment (CDE), even if the user is within a trusted network.

Some clarification on Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard and Multi-Factor Authentication

Troy Leach, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard's Chief Technology Officer clarifies this further by stating,[3] 

[A] significant change in PCI DSS 3.2 adds multi-factor authentication as a requirement for any personnel with administrative access into the cardholder data environment, so that a password alone is not enough to verify the user’s identity 
and grant access to sensitive information, even if they are within a trusted network…
The most important point is that the change to the requirement is intended for all administrative access into the cardholder data environment, even from within a company’s own network. 
This applies to any administrator, whether it be a third party or internal, that has the ability to change systems and other credentials within that network to potentially compromise the security of the environment.

More Information#

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