Practices of Implementing PCI Compliance - Essay on Cybersecurity

With the ever changing world of technology, organizations face challenges that need IT experts to solve for the existence of security in the firm through the use of PCI. However, the process of implementing and even maintaining the PCI-DSS needs experienced professionals who are aware of the security standards and how best the organization can benefit from their security systems (Chuvakin & Williams, 2012). Moreover, the implementation of PCI requires that the security professions should first install PAN which will store, process and transmit data, thus making it easier for PCI-DSS to offer general data protection. For this to be efficient, however, the there are those practices that should be put into consideration while implementing the PCI Compliance.

Implementation of a Security Program

Despite the fact that achieving as well as maintaining PCI-DSS compliance is different, organizations should ensure to make regular assessments of the access controls. The installation and maintenance of a firewall, anti virus, file- integrity monitoring (FIM) and even intrusion- prevention systems (IPS) to protect data is one of the best practices of implementation which offers protection through controlling of the traffic that occurs between internal and external networks (DeLuccia, 2008). The security checks ensure that all the systems of an organization are protected from those networks that are untrusted thus block all the transmissions that are unauthorized.

Detecting Breakdowns or Failures in Security Controls

It is vital that an implementer of PCI ensure that in a case of a problem occurring in the security controls be detected and acted upon on time. The identification of the cause of the failure should be made, so that the experts may work on to prevent reoccurring of the issue through mitigation implementation. Moreover, after the solving of the problem, the security controls should not be left to work until they undergo monitor for a period to ensure that the controls are effective in operation.

Review of Changes

When implementing PCI, it is vital to take note of the changes within and outside the organization that may affect the systems. For instance, changes in network configuration or even in the case of addition of new systems may imply that the implementation of the PCI DSS should be made in a way that they could determine and detect the additional systems or networks (DeLuccia, 2008). Therefore, PCI DSS would have to act on the new system to configure it per the standards of FIM, patches, AV and even audit logging.

Documentation Library

It is important to have a record of all kinds of documentation on all the security procedures as well as knowing all the persons who are allowed to access the PCI data since it is important in the process of auditing. To have an up to date information involves making regular reviews on the periodic, communication, software and hardware. When doing reviews in the implementation of the PCI DSS, all samples of system components are verified to ensure they meet the PCI configuration standards of compliance. Additionally, annual confirmation of the systems will aid in monitoring progress to meet the security requirements of a given entity of firm. For instance, in cases where vendors cannot support the technology of a given organization, the business can opt to choose a replacement for the sake of its security needs and requirements. A review and documentation of data ensure that as much as the firm has maintained their safety, it does not go outside the scope of compliance.

Training

As much as cardholder data is private, most employees are not literate enough to handle the information appropriately thus end up disclosing it. The act is dangerous since it always leads to stealing of data from a third party who may use it for own purposes. Regardless of the fact that it is the role organizations to make implementations on the security controls of the data as per the PCI-DSS standards, it is the role of all cardholders to exercise care while handling the cards (Chuvakin & Williams, 2012). However, it can only be possible if the holders are educated or trained on all matters relating to data security of the cards. The training process should apply to all personnel who use the card to those developers who role is to manage PCI processing systems. The periodic training will imply that in the case of exposure of cardholder data; they are responsible for the damages and not the organization.

References

Chuvakin, A., & Williams, B. R. (2012). PCI compliance: Understand and implement effective PCI data security standard compliance. Place of publication not identified: Syngress.

DeLuccia, J. J. (2008). IT compliance and controls: Best practices for implementation. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons.