Both the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) relate to regulations for firms to secure payment gateways and safeguard credit card information.

PCI-DSS applies to all organizations that store, process, or transmit cardholder data, while PA-DSS pertains to vendors who create and market payment applications.

PA-DSS and PCI are both compliance standards developed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), an industry regulatory body comprised of Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, and JCB. In addition to banking institutions, merchants, processing businesses, software developers, and point-of-sale providers make up the board.

What is the PCI Data Security Standard?

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is the industry’s most important compliance standard (PCI DSS). While merchants and service providers are not required by law or regulation to implement PCI standards, the major card brands require its adoption by all banks and other companies that handle credit card transactions.

Failure to comply with the appropriate requirements may result in a merchant’s inability to accept credit card transactions, as well as the financial repercussions of such an inability. Consequently, all merchants are required to comply with PCI regulations.

PCI compliance consists of a set of twelve criteria established by the PCI SSC. The prerequisites consist of the following:

1. Protect cardholder data by installing as well as maintaining a firewall.
2. Do not use vendor-supplied default values for system passwords and other security settings.
3. Protect cardholder information.
4. Encrypt cardholder data sent via open, public networks.
5. Protect all computers from infection and update anti-virus software or applications regularly.
6. Develop and maintain secure apps and systems.
7. Restrict cardholder data access based on business needs.
8. Identify and validate system component access.
9. Limit physical access to cardholder information.
10. Monitor and record every network resource and cardholder data access.
11. Test security systems and procedures regularly.
12. Maintain an information security policy applicable to all staff.

Within these twelve needs are 281 instructions in all. To be in complete compliance, your firm must adhere to all goals under its purview. Time is required to achieve compliance: up to two years for major merchants and one year for medium-sized and smaller businesses.

How can a business achieve PCI compliance?

The number of transactions handled by a merchant within a particular year determines the merchant’s classification. The levels for each credit card brand vary significantly, but the evaluation standards for each merchant level are identical.

The technique used to evaluate a merchant’s compliance with PCI criteria varies based on the sort of company they conduct and their merchant level. While all merchants must do an annual assessment, the merchant level determines who conducts the assessment and the amount of depth with which it is conducted.

PCI-DSS evaluations often fall into one of three categories:

• Qualified Security Assessor (QSA): A QSA is a third-party assessor who has been authorized to do PCI assessments by the PCI Security Council. For all Level 1 Merchants, a QSA is necessary to conduct assessments.
• Internal Security Assessor (ISA): An ISA is an assessor from inside the examined organization. The PCI Security Council has also qualified the ISA to do PCI assessments, but solely for their own business.
• Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ): Lower-level merchants (with fewer transactions) utilize the Self-Assessment Questionnaires to self-evaluate their compliance. Multiple SAQs are available, with the particular SAQ utilized depending on how clients do credit card transactions (i.e., the card does not present vs. card present, fully outsourced authorizations vs. partially outsourced authorizations).

What Does Compliance with PA DSS Mean?

The acronym PA-DSS refers to the Payment Application Data Security Standard. Its purpose is to assist businesses such as software suppliers in developing secure payment apps that do not keep “prohibited data” such as complete magnetic stripe, PIN, or CVV2 information.

PA-DSS Validated Payment Application alone does not ensure PCI DSS compliance, according to the PA-DSS v.3.2 Program Guide.

What are the PA-DSS prerequisites?

In “Payment Application Data Security Standard,” which was most recently revised in May 2016, the PCI SSC defines 14 standards and testing processes for each:

1. Do not keep the entire magnetic stripe, card verification code or value (CAV2, CID, CVC2, CVV2), or PIN block data.
2. Protect cardholder information.
3. Offer secure authentication mechanisms.
4. Record payment application actions.
5. Develop payment security applications.
6. Safeguard wireless communications.
7. Test payment apps to fix vulnerabilities and maintain payment application upgrades.
8. Facilitate the development of a secure network.
9. Never keep cardholder information on an internet-connected server.
10. Facilitate remote access to the payment application securely.
11. Encrypt sensitive data sent via public networks.
12. Secure all non-console administrative access.
13. Provide clients, resellers, and system integrators with PA-DSS instructions, documentation, and training programs.
14. Assign PA-DSS obligations to workers, consumers, resellers, and system integrators, and manage training programs for these groups.

Many PA-DSS criteria are comparable to PCI-DSS requirements.

Finally, to know more about PC-DSS and PCI DSS, consider connecting with fintech development company!