How To Do PCI SSF Assessment for Your Business?
PCI SSF compliance consultancy
You have become a PCI compliant business and now you need to perform annual audits with your compliance. For the audits you need a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). The companies that have a QSA certification from the PCI Standard Security Council can perform audits for PCI compliance businesses.
PCI SSF is Payment Card Industry Software Security Framework. SSF defines the standards to be followed while designing and developing payment card software systems. PCI SSF has two standards: PCI Secure Software Standard (PCI SSS) and PCI Software Life Cycle (PCI SLC).
For organizations that handle a large number of transactions have to employ a QSA to perform the audits. Individuals who are certified by the PCI SSC to perform audits on their sponsoring organizations are called Internal Security Assessor (ISA). All sizes of organizations have to do PCI SSF assessment.
For organizations that handle a small amount of transactions have to use the Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) to perform audits. SAQs are validation tools which can be used by the merchants and the service providers to report their PCI compliance self assessment. SAQs are a set of Questionnaires which the merchants and service providers have to complete annually.
PCI compliance assessment
The existing infrastructure is reviewed from the networks to the access control.
The systems where the cardholder data is stored, processed and transmitted are reviewed.
The present status of the PCI compliance is reported.
Identifying the security issues that may be present and providing the solutions.
A Report on Compliance (ROC) has to be given by the merchants undergoing the assessment. It verifies that the merchant is being verified for PCI compliance. It confirms that the policies, approaches and the workflow are implemented correctly by the organization for the payment card-based transactions.
Benefits of PCI SSF compliance
It helps to eliminate the security threats and data breach complications.
Reduces the risk of attack on your software environment and provides protection.
Assures that the data is secure and a secure authentication process is implemented.
Helps you to manage the software product, process and environment securely.
Employs a recognized methodology for risk management.
Provides protection from the emerging security threats.