The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has been established by the leading international card
organizations Visa, Mastercard , Amex, Diners, Discovery, JCB. The PCI SSC has developed the PCI DSS rules and documents
to regulate and lay down the card security principles and policies. PCI DSS is intended for all entities that store,
process, or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitiive authentication data or could impact the security of the cardholder
data environment. This includes all entities involved in payment account processing – merchants, processors, acquirers,
issuers, and other service providers. These rules set the technical and operational requirements for organizations accepting
or processing payment transactions.
Please see the latest version of requirements and standards here.
All merchants that store, process or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitive authentication data must be PCI DSS compliant.
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 cardholder data environment.
Account data (card data and sensitive authentication data) elements:
|
Data Elements |
Storage Restrictions |
Required to Render
Stored Data Unreadable |
| Cardholder Data |
|
Primary Account Number (PAN) |
Storage is kept to a miinimum If your organization stores PAN, it is crucial to render it unreadable. |
Yes Standard requires that the PAN must be rendered unreadable |
|
Cardholder Name |
Storage is kept to a miinimum If your organization stores PAN, it is crucial to render it unreadable. |
No |
|
Service Code |
Storage is kept to a miinimum If your organization stores PAN, it is crucial to render it unreadable. |
No |
|
Expiration Date |
Storage is kept to a miinimum If your organization stores PAN, it is crucial to render it unreadable. |
No |
| Sensitive Authentication Data Sensitive authentication data must not be stored after authorisation, (even if encrypted) |
|
Full Track Data Full track data from the magnetic stripe, equivalent data on the chip, or elsewhere |
Cannot be stored after authorization |
Yes, data stored until authorization is complete must be protected with strong cryptography |
|
Card verification code The three or four-digit value printed on the front or back of a payment card |
Cannot be stored after authorization |
Yes, data stored until authorization is complete must be protected with strong cryptography |
|
PIN/PIN Block |
Cannot be stored after authorization |
Yes, data stored until authorization is complete must be protected with strong cryptography |
How to be sure that you are compliant with PCI DSS requirements?
We inform merchants once per year via e-mail what kind of action must be taken to comply with the PCI DSS. The requirements are presented in the table below.
Merchants are categorized into 4 levels based on the annual number of card payment transactions by one card brand (i.e. Mastercard, Visa, Amex etc.). We require Level 1 - Level 3 merchants to notify us of their compliance status after the required action has been taken. Level 4 merchants must notify us of their compliance status by sending a completed Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ).
| Merchant level |
Merchants transaction criteria |
Required actions from merchants |
Frequency |
| Level 1 |
Merchants with 6 million and more annual transactions in total for Mastercard or Visa |
External security audit made by Qualified Security Assessor(QSA) |
once per year |
| Network Scan conducted by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) |
once per quarter |
| Level 2 |
Merchants with 1 to 6 million annual transactions in total for Mastercard or Visa |
Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) or Internal Security Assessor (ISA) Level 2 merchants who choose to complete an annual self-assessment questionnaire must ensure that staff engaged in the self-assessment attend PCI SSC ISA training and pass the associated accreditation program annually in order to continue the option of self-assessment for compliance validation. Alternatively, Level 2 merchants, at their own discretion, must complete an annual onsite assessment conducted by a PCI SSC approved Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) rather than complete an annual self-assessment questionnaire. |
once per year |
|
1. Merchants completing the SAQ A, A-EP or D are required to engage a QSA or ISA for annual compliance validation.
2. Merchants completing the SAQ B, B-IP, C-VT, C or P2PE may now self-assess without the use of a QSA or ISA for compliance validation
|
once per year |
| Network Scan conducted by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) |
once per quarter |
| Level 3 |
E-commerce merchants with 20 000 to 1 million annual transactions in total for Mastercard or Visa |
Completing annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) required |
once per year |
| Network Scan conducted by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) |
once per quarter |
| Level 4 |
All other merchants |
Annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) at merchant’s discretion |
Recommended once per quarter |
| Network Scan conducted by an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) |
Recommended once per year |
Keep in mind, that you’ll need to perform:
- Security audit by a certified auditor acting as Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) at the legal entities that are presented on the official PCI DSS website.
- Scanning of the network by a qualified net scanning vendor acting as Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) or Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). ASV can conduct a scanning procedure for in-store and online merchants but have no rights to perform annual audits.
- Internal audit, during which questions in SAQ (Self Assessment Questionnaire) have to be answered. The questionnaire content depends on technical solution.
PCI DSS requirements and goals
The 12 requirements and goals in the table below will help you to understand what important actions must be performed to be compliant wiht PCI DSS rules.
| Goals |
PCI DSS Requirements |
| Build and maintain a secure network and system |
1. Install and maintain network security controls.
2. Apply secure configurations to all system elements.
|
| Protect cardholder data |
3. Protect stored account data.
4. Protect cardholder data with strong cryptography during transmission over open, public networks.
|
| Maintain a vulnerability managemenet program |
5. Protect all systems and networks from malicious software.
6. Develop and maintain secure systems and software.
|
| Implement strong access control measures |
7. Restrict access to system elements and cardholder data by business need-to-know.
8. Identify users and authenticate access to system elements.
9. Restrict physical access to cardholder data.
|
| Regularly monitor and test networks |
10. Log and monitor all access to system elements and cardholder data.
11. Test security systems and networks regularly.
|
| Maintain an information security policy |
12. Support information security with organizational policies and programs. |
For more information please visit https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
