By Anastasios Arampatzis
Data protection and security are essential to achieving and maintaining Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. PCI DSS is a set of security standards to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Although the latest version, PCI DSS 4.0, does not require data loss prevention (DLP), such a tool can help financial entities discover, monitor, and control their data stored within the organization and prevent threats to the cardholder environment.
DLP solutions are among the most valuable technologies available for PCI DSS compliance. As their policies apply directly to sensitive data rather than devices or the entire network, they enable cardholder information to be identified, logged, and controlled to meet PCI DSS requirements. Companies can establish efficient data security policies that address identified issues rather than taking a broad compliance approach by knowing where data is stored and how it is used. A vulnerability targeting strategy protects data more effectively and helps companies save money by ensuring that the solutions they choose are necessary.
DLP solutions can help organizations comply with most PCI DSS compliance requirements in the following ways:
- Protecting stored cardholder data.
- Restricting access to the cardholder based on business need.
- Monitoring and monitoring access to network resources.
- Periodic safety and system tests.
PCI DSS compliance is required for every business with banks or credit cards. DLP tools can bring organizations closer to compliance by helping them discover, monitor, and control where their data is stored and how it is used and transmitted.
Let’s examine how comprehensive DLP solutions can help comply with specific PCI DSS 4.0 requirements.
Requirement 3: Protect Stored Account Data
The third requirement of PCI DSS focuses on safeguarding stored cardholder data. To comply, businesses must first identify where the data is located on their systems and how it is accessed and transferred. DLP solutions can help by scanning the entire network to discover sensitive data and determine how it is stored and used.
DLP solutions use predefined policies for standards such as PCI DSS, so companies do not have to create policies from scratch. This allows for efficient data security policies that address specific issues rather than a broad compliance approach. By knowing where data is stored and how it is used, companies can establish a more effective vulnerability targeting strategy, which saves money by ensuring that the chosen solutions are necessary.
DLP solutions can control the transfer and storage of sensitive data at company endpoints, preventing its transmission over the internet through unprotected channels or to unencrypted removable devices. Companies can define allowlists of approved targets, such as company-issued encrypted USBs or email addresses. This approach provides better protection for data and reduces the risk of data breaches.
Requirement 7: Restrict Access to System Components and Cardholder Data
Ineffective access control rules and definitions can lead to unauthorized individuals accessing critical data or systems. To ensure that only authorized personnel have access to essential data, it is crucial to have systems and processes that limit access based on job responsibilities and a need-to-know basis.
Businesses can meet Requirement 7 mandates by leveraging DLP content discovery scans to verify and enforce restricted access to sensitive data. These scanning tools can detect sensitive data on unauthorized devices and take immediate action to remediate the issue by either deleting or encrypting that data.
DLP can also accurately identify all file shares that contain unencrypted cardholder data, thereby mitigating unauthorized access by encrypting the data or moving it to an appropriate repository with proper access controls. Thus, organizations can ensure that authorization policy violations are detected and addressed promptly.
Requirement 10: Log and Monitor All Access to System Components and Cardholder Data
Companies must monitor essential system components and report all security events under PCI DSS requirement 10. Logging mechanisms and the ability to track user activities are critical in preventing, detecting, or minimizing the impact of a data compromise. Logs on all system components and in the cardholder data environment (CDE) allow thorough tracking, alerting, and analysis when something goes wrong. Determining the cause of a compromise is difficult, if not impossible, without system activity logs.
Antivirus software can provide security event logs, but data loss prevention (DLP) solutions are more effective in demonstrating a firm’s ability to protect its data from intrusions. DLP solutions can offer logs of attempted illegal transfers and how they were addressed, which is crucial for ensuring the security of sensitive data. Companies can also use these logs and reports to make informed decisions about the technologies they must implement for their future data protection plan.
Read more: https://www.globalbankingandfinance.com/data-protection-in-pci-dss-4-0-what-you-need-to-know-to-be-compliant/?fbclid=IwAR1yGEI9yGmGpXTzxbsl5iBU-9txHbv_m-FhG0QpFNKJfWO_oUjxSSz5Tf