PCI-DSS

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards from the major card schemes. The PCI Standard is mandated by the card brands and administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council The standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud. Validation of compliance is performed annually, either by an external Qualified Security Assessor QSA or by a firm specific Internal Security Assessor that creates a Report on Compliance for organizations handling large volumes of transactions, or by Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for companies handling smaller volumes.

Five different programs: Visa's Cardholder Information Security Program, MasterCard's Site Data Protection, American Express' Data Security Operating Policy, Discover's Information Security and Compliance, and the JCB's Data Security Program were started by card companies. The intentions of each were roughly similar: to create an additional level of protection for card issuers by ensuring that merchants meet minimum levels of security when they store, process and transmit cardholder data.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was then formed and these companies aligned their individual policies to create the PCI DSS.

There have been a number of versions:

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

Each version of PCI DSS 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.

The PCI SSC has released several supplemental pieces of information to clarify various requirements. These documents include the following

A Qualified Security Assessor is a certificate that has been provided by the PCI Security Standards Council. This Certified person can audit merchants for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance.

A Report on Compliance is a form that has to be filled by all level 1 merchants Visa merchants undergoing a PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) audit.The ROC form is used to verify that the merchant being audited is compliant with the PCI DSS standard.

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