PCI Risk Assessment

With the increasing reach of online transactions throughout the world today, possibilities are opening up for hackers, who are perpetually working towards penetrating the security measures taken by a company to secure its assets and that of its customers.

To ensure the safety of people from such serious and persistent threats, strict measures should be taken. Hence, it becomes the responsibility of the leaders and managers of the companies to comprehend their current standing, identify the exposure points and manage any such security risks so as to protect themselves from harm.

What is PCI Risk Assessment?

A risk assessment, as required in the PCI DSS, is a formal process used by organizations to identify threats and vulnerabilities that could negatively impact the security of cardholder data. Before any entity begins towards PCI Compliance, it has to fulfil the requirements of a formal risk assessment. Any vagueness in the nature of this requirement was cleared with the publication of PCI DSS Risk Assessment Guidelines– a rulebook for the security measures. It steers focus towards the card data environment to secure the information whenever it is stored, processed or transmitted.

These guidelines provide an approach to analyze the existing security posture of the environment, to deal with the current problems and to identify the things that could wrong in the future, since the risks are dynamic in nature- what is applicable today might be rendered irrelevant tomorrow.

The objective of the PCI risk assessment activity is to remove any blind spots and impart clarity through proper threat analysis. Based on the threat intelligence the customer will be provided with actionable insight that will best suit his environment.

What Are The Requirements for PCI Risk Assessment?

Following are the mandatory requirements to be met with PCI DSS standard:

• Assessment is to be done annually, or in any case that involves significant changes being made to card data environment
• A thorough assessment is to be conducted before outsourcing any portion of the business’ CDE to any third party and take into account the impact it could have on the organization and the credit/debit card information
• It should identify any vulnerabilities and threats to both primary and secondary critical assets
• The outcome of PCI risk assessment should be well documented with all the Risks identified during assessment
• It should have a proper risk mitigation or treatment plan to deal with any case of emergency
• It should protect from any threats that could surface in the future
• It should provide a clear situation of the biggest area of weaknesses and the most probable ways through which the weakness can be exploited by a potential threat creator
• The Assessment inventory should cover all payment channels including all the assets which can directly or indirectly impact the security of CDE.

Why Should SISA Be Your Choice?

SISA has been the part of this process, right from its inception. The topic of risk assessment in SIG (Special Interest Group) was proposed by SISA’s CEO, Dharshan Shanthamurthy, and he was also the contributor as a chair for SIG. We were the pioneers in launching PCI Risk Assessment tool which helped more than a hundred organizations- worldwide- to decrease their risk assessment effort and time by automating PCI risk management procedure.

SISA RA has built-in standard data to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks that could come up in any individual scenario. We have been working in this field for well over a decade now, and hence we have a vast knowledge and deep understanding of the business risks associated with a card environment.

What We Do?

• We help you to identify the precarious risks involved with PCI data and the impact it will have on you if the security is severed in any case
• In case you have already met with circumstances jeopardizing your security, our industry experts, who are a part of PCI industry, will effectively help you to mitigate the situation
• SISA RA helps you in automating Risk Assessment activities which will reduce your cost and efforts up to 80%
• We provide you with automated reports which will help you in having consistency by analyzing previous reports
• We provide a two-day Information Security Risk Assessment Workshop, to impart knowledge regarding the security measures, based on the following distinguished methodologies- NIST, OCTAVE, ISO 27005
• Our main motive is to prevent any security incident, yet if it happens anyway we are ready for the timely response
• We deliver vulnerability management through industry-leading products.
• We handle the scanning and testing product complexity. We also help our clients overcome any resource constraints and in-house security skill shortage
• We find and resolve the liabilities across business applications, databases, and networks

How We Work?

The form of protocol we follow is as follows:

• Half-a-day awareness session: Its main objective is to create awareness among the users regarding the gravity of PCI DSS compliance. We intend to create a mindset on how the processes of a business can be changed to meet the PCI DSS requirement.
• Scoping Exercise: We identify all the applications, system components and departments having access to cardholder information so that we can figure out the best scope for PCI DSS certification for the client.
• PCI DSS Risk Assessment: Next, we conduct PCI Risk Assessment to identify the various points of exposure within the framework and the unique risks which can impact the confidentiality of a cardholder.
• PCI DSS Gap Assessment: Then we identify the gaps and loopholes in the infrastructure with respect to PCI DSS 3.2 through PCI DSS Gap Assessment.

Get Started

To keep consistent track of the activities of the systems throughout their lifecycle is a colossal challenge. The system needs to evolve with time because the risks are evolving too. Also, the misunderstandings regarding the concept of Risk Assessment leads to fouling up of assessment exercise that serves no real purpose.

It only meets certain requirements of some compliance standards for formal risk analysis. But that doesn’t shield you from the risks shaping up outside.

And that is where SISA comes into the picture. We relieve you of the worries and troubles regarding the vulnerability management and security services so that you can pull all your focus towards the core objective of your business. Talk to us today!