New PCI Guidelines Go Live Jan. 1, 2014

The PCI Security Standards Council has published version 3.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard and the Payment Application Data Security Standard, both of which go into effect on Jan.1.

Note that version 2.0 will remain active until Dec. 31, 2014, to allow time for merchants to make the transition.

Version 3.0 offers more flexibility and an increased focus on education, awareness and security as a shared responsibility, according to a news release from the Security Standards Council, which stated that “Version 3.0 builds on ... feedback we’ve heard from our community... to help organizations make payment security good business practice — every day, all year round."

New requirements (as summarized by RetailCustomerExperience. com) include:

PCI DSS

• Req. 5.1.2 — evaluate evolving malware threats for any systems not considered to be commonly affected
• Req. 8.2.3 — combined minimum password complexity and strength requirements into one, and increased flexibility for alternatives
• Req. 8.5.1 — for service providers with remote access to customer premises, use unique authentication credentials for each customer*
• Req. 8.6 — where other authentication mechanisms are used (for example, physical or logical security tokens, smart cards, certificates, etc.) these must be linked to an individual account and ensure only the intended user can gain access
• Req. 9.3 — control physical access to sensitive areas for onsite personnel, including a process to authorize access, and revoke access immediately upon termination
• Req. 9.9 — protect devices that capture payment card data via direct physical interaction with the card from tampering and substitution*
• Req. 11.3 and 11.3.4 — implement a methodology for penetration testing; if segmentation is used to isolate the cardholder data environment from other networks, perform penetration tests to verify that the segmentation methods are operational and effective*
• Req. 11.5.1 — implement a process to respond to any alerts generated by the change-detection mechanism
• Req. 12.8.5 — maintain information about which PCI DSS requirements are managed by each service provider, and which are managed by the entity
• Req. 12.9 — for service providers, provide the written, agreement/acknowledgment to their customers as specified at requirement 12.8.2*

*Indicates future dated requirements that are best practices until July 1, 2015.
PA-DSS

• Req. 5.1.5 — payment application developers to verify integrity of source code during the development process
• Req. 5.1.6 — payment applications to be developed according to industry best practices for secure coding techniques
• Req. 5.4 — payment application vendors to incorporate versioning methodology for each payment application
• Req. 5.5 — payment application vendors to incorporate risk assessment techniques into their software development process
• Req. 7.3 — application vendor to provide release notes for all application updates
• Req. 10.2.2 — vendors with remote access to customer premises (for example, to provide support/maintenance services) use unique authentication credentials for each customer
• Req. 14.1 — provide information security and PA-DSS training for vendor personnel with PA-DSS responsibility at least annually

Supporting documentation, including updated self-assessment questionnaires, attestations of compliance and reporting templates, will be available in early 2014 once version 3.0 is effective.