Financial

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a global security standard developed and maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), which was founded in 2006 by the five major payment card brands (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB). The current version is PCI-DSS v4.0.1 (published June 2024, with mandatory compliance required from 31 March 2025 for all new requirements). PCI-DSS is not government legislation but a contractual obligation — compliance is enforced through the agreements between merchants/service providers and their acquiring banks. Failure to comply results in fines (up to $100,000/month from card brands), increased transaction fees, and ultimately loss of the ability to process card payments. PCI-DSS applies to any organization worldwide that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data (CHD) or sensitive authentication data (SAD), regardless of size or transaction volume. The standard defines 12 requirements organized in 6 control objectives: build and maintain secure networks (firewalls, secure configurations), protect cardholder data (encryption, key management), maintain a vulnerability management program (patching, anti-malware), implement strong access controls (least privilege, MFA, physical access), regularly monitor and test networks (logging, penetration testing), and maintain an information security policy. Compliance is validated through either a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) on-site assessment (Level 1 merchants) or a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) for smaller entities.