PCI Compliance ServicEs
The global Leader in PCI Compliance
VikingCloud is the only service provider with 100+ Qualified Security Assessors (QSAs), an in-house Compliance Council, and a custom-built platform to protect your organization, avoid fines, and reduce the cost of your PCI DSS compliance program.
PCI Compliance at VikingCloud is powered by:
Experienced QSA Team
ASV Certified Scanning
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In-House QA & Compliance Council
Innovative Asgard Platform™
Exclusive Benchmarks and Best Practices
PATENT-PENDING CYBER RISK SCORE
VikingCloud has more experience than any other company in managing large, complex assessments.
We are trusted by many of the most respected companies around the globe that store, transmit, or process card payments to help them attain the required compliance – and ensure the highest level of cybersecurity - to avoid disruptions to their organization.
Our QSAs have access to the Asgard Platform, the industry’s largest repository of anonymized compliance and cybersecurity data. VikingCloud monitors and analyzes over 6 billion compliance and cybersecurity events every day. That means access to proprietary benchmarks and best practices to streamline compliance management and protect your business - better.
And because requirements, risks, and threats change constantly, we continuously and quickly update those benchmarks and best practices, so you always have the right information at the right time to reduce risk. Simply put, our PCI Compliance services are best in class.
Over 20 Years of Best Practices
As a vikingcloud pci compliance customer, you get:
PCI Compliance Consulting Services
Partner with our PCI Compliance Consultants to safeguard your business against breaches and ensure compliance with all PCI DSS requirements. Our dedicated consulting team will guide you through the complexities of data protection, aid in establishing secure network environments, develop a robust security policy, and provide strategic insights for achieving and maintaining compliance.
Protect your valuable customer data and steer clear of costly fines or penalties associated with non-compliance.
Why Choose VikingCloud’s PCI Compliance Consultants?
- Gain expert guidance tailored to meet PCI DSS v4.0 compliance requirements effectively.
- Identify and address vulnerabilities in your security infrastructure proactively.
- Benefit from ongoing assessments to uphold continuous compliance standards.
- Mitigate the risk of penalties and fines resulting from non-compliance.
Our PCI Compliance experts are equipped to align your organization with PCI requirements, ensuring that all protocols and data security measures meet industry standards.
Let us shoulder the burden of compliance, freeing you to focus on propelling your business forward.
Your PCI Compliance Partner for the Long-Term
We know compliance is a full-time job. Our best-practice methodology includes Quarterly Compliance Reviews to help monitor your controls and ensure that vulnerability scans, penetration tests, process reviews, and other required tasks are completed.
We supply the resources and the know-how to ensure your annual PCI compliance is part of a coordinated program of cyber defense and protection against disruptions to your organization.
providing critical support for PCI Compliance customers
VikingCloud provides other critical support for PCI compliance customers, with strategic add-ons, including:
The Asgard Platform™
VikingCloud’s exclusive Asgard Platform simplifies PCI compliance management with a secure, centralized hub for real-time visibility, communication, task management, sharing, and storage of key documents and sensitive information.
The Asgard Platform’s easy-to-use dashboard, timeline, and alerts highlight upcoming deadlines, prioritize key action items, track progress, and manage approvals to streamline the assessment process and help keep everyone focused, productive, and on time.
All Compliance and Cybersecurity Services – All in One Place.
And if you’re a company with multiple assessments – or if you’re using other VikingCloud solutions like Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Scanning - you’ll have the convenience of seeing and managing them all in one place.
The Asgard Platform delivers better and more streamlined cybersecurity and compliance protection – without taking more of your time.
VikingCloud accreditations
VikingCloud is accredited as a Qualified Security Assessor Company (QSA-C), an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV), and a Payment Card Industry Forensic Investigator (PFI).
We are authorized to assess compliance against all PCI standards, including the following:
VikingCloud ensures validation of your compliance efforts, meeting the requirements set forth by major card brands. Our platform also includes robust access control measures to safeguard your sensitive data throughout the compliance process.
PCI Compliance FAQs
What does PCI DSS compliance entail?
The PCI DSS is a set of best practice security measures to ensure the protection of payment card account data (customers’ cardholder data and sensitive authentication data) and the security of any environment where payment card account data is accepted, processed, stored, and/or transmitted. Compliance with the PCI DSS involves implementing, operating, and maintaining those security measures from the standard that are applicable to your business’s cardholder data environment(s) to keep systems and payment card account data secure and to help prevent, detect, and respond to data breaches.
Which organizations require PCI DSS certification?
The PCI DSS itself isn’t about certification; rather, it is about following (complying with) the security measures and controls contained in the standard. The PCI DSS applies to all organizations involved in payment card processing (including merchants, processors, acquirers, issuers, and service providers), as well as to all other organizations that store, process, or transmit (or could impact the security of) payment card account data.
Some organizations may be required to validate their compliance with the PCI DSS. Compliance validation is the annual process of performing an assessment of the organization’s PCI DSS compliance (either through self-assessment or as a formal assessment undertaken by a PCI Qualified Security Assessor), completing the applicable assessment reporting document and associated PCI DSS Attestation of Compliance, and submitting those validation documents (including an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) external vulnerability scan report, if required) to the relevant compliance accepting entity. Validation is an annual, point-in-time declaration of the organization’s compliance with the PCI DSS.
Whether an organization is in scope for and subject to the PCI DSS requirement to validate their compliance is at the discretion of those organizations that manage PCI DSS compliance programs, such as the payment card brands and acquiring banks. Validation requirements may be specified in the payment card brands’ rules or other standards and differ for certain types of organizations or are based on the volume of transactions processed.
How can I determine if I am PCI compliant?
There are two main ways an organization can determine PCI compliance.
- Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ): An SAQ is a form with questions on either all or a subset of the PCI DSS requirements. There are different SAQ versions for merchants and service providers. Each merchant SAQ addresses specific common payment processing methods. SAQs are intended for use by smaller organizations (processing smaller volumes of account data) to complete their assessment of and report on their compliance.
- Formal PCI DSS assessment resulting in the completion of a Report on Compliance (ROC): For larger organizations processing a high volume of transactions, or those organizations mandated by the payment card brands and acquiring banks to perform a formal assessment of PCI DSS compliance. The compliance assessment is performed by a PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).
Payment card brands may permit the performance of the formal assessment by a PCI Internal Security Assessor (ISA) or other suitably qualified internal resource. The formal assessment is similar to an audit; it is an in-depth review of each applicable PCI DSS requirement, where the QSA must perform the expected testing set out in the PCI DSS to gather sufficient evidence (through examination, observation, or interview) to enable them to determine that a requirement has been met.
Whether an organization is able to validate its compliance through self-assessment or is required to undertake a formal assessment is determined by those organizations that manage PCI DSS compliance programs, such as the payment card brands and acquiring banks. Validation requirements may be specified in the payment card brands’ rules or other standards and differ for certain types of organizations or are based on the volume of transactions processed.
What steps are involved in proving PCI compliance?
Proving PCI DSS compliance can be equated with the annual assessment and validation of compliance. However, compliance with the PCI DSS should not be thought of as a one-time or annual test; rather, it is an ongoing effort and a status to be continually maintained.
The high-level steps to assess and thereby prove compliance with the PCI DSS are:
- Assign responsibility and designate resources
- Determine your compliance validation requirement
- Understand the Requirements
- Confirm Your Assessment Scope
- Perform the Assessment
- Remediate Gaps
- Complete Reporting and Validation Documentation
- Maintain Compliance
- Review and Address Change
What are the potential costs of not being PCI compliant?
Protecting payment card account data from unauthorized use, exposure, and potential fraud is key in delivering the trust expected by customers and partners. If customers or partners find out security is lax for example, as a result of a data breach or is not up to the standard expected, they might take their business elsewhere.
The potential consequences and costs of non-compliance with the PCI DSS include:
For merchants, the potential for non-compliance charges levied by acquirer(s) / merchant services provider.For service providers, the possibility of not meeting contractual obligations.
May be in breach of personal data protection regulations, such as the EU GDPR.
If a data breach occurs, costs can be encountered in several areas:
Notification – serving notice to data subjects, determining regulatory requirements, and communicating with regulators.Post-breach response: communicating with and supporting affected customers, recompense and credit monitoring/ID protection costs, legal expenses, and regulatory fines.Detection and escalation – forensics/investigations, crisis management, boards/executive communications.
Revenue and lost opportunities – service disruption and downtime, customer attrition, and reputation/goodwill losses.
Post-breach recovery, remediation, and compliance assessment costs.
Penalties levied by the payment card brands.
Penalties levied by data protection regulators for breach of personal data.
What is the cost of achieving PCI compliance?
Achieving (and maintaining) PCI DSS compliance carries a range of up-front and ongoing costs. The cost and effort will vary depending on an organization’s specific situation. What you can expect to pay depends on variables such as:.
The size, location, and nature of the organization.The number of card-based transactions processed (or support the processing of) annually.
How process card-based payments are captured (i.e., in-person, via mail order or telephone, or online) – if a merchant business.
The services offered, the organization’s role in payment card processing, and the potential to impact the security of account data - if the organization is a third-party service provider.The complexitu of the organization's network, systems, and security setup that supports the payment card acceptance and/or processing.
Potential cost areas include:
Annual PCI DSS Assessment Security Testing Network, hardware, software, and technology spend
Implementation and remediation
Documentation and training
Resource/Time commitments
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