PCI DSS Compliance

Accepting payment cards spans industries, even businesses that would not necessarily consider themselves to be a "merchant" in terms of traditional brick & mortar retailers. However, any company that accepts payment via debit and/or credit cards must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Some businesses choose to segment off the cardholder environment and manage it by its own unique policies and standards. Other businesses address PCI DSS requirements as part of its overall policies and standards. Either way works and ComplianceForge offers solutions for both approaches!

What Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) Type Are You?

SAQs are requirements for smaller merchants and service providers that are not required to submit a Report on Compliance (ROC). It is designed as a self-validation tool to assess security for cardholder data that uses a series of yes-or-no questions for each applicable PCI DSS requirement. 

There are different questionnaires available to meet different merchant environments. Merchants are required to identify the SAQ that best describes how it accept payment cards. Some organizations may even need to fill out different SAQs, based on different methods of accepting payment (e.g., SAQ A for its website and SAQ C for its "brick & mortar" store locations). If you are not sure which questionnaire applies to you, contact your merchant services provider for assistance or review the official PCI Security Standards Council's guidance on "assessing the security of your cardholder data" to help determine the appropriate SAQ type for your organization - https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/completing_self_assessment 

ComplianceForge sells its PCI DSS Policies & Standards based on the SAQ type (shown below): 

SAQ Type Method of Accepting Payment Cards E-Commerce In-Person
A

Card-not-present merchants (e-commerce or mail/telephone-order) that have fully outsourced all cardholder data functions to PCI DSS compliant third-party service providers, with no electronic storage, processing, or transmission of any cardholder data on the merchant’s systems or premises.

Not applicable to face-to-face channels.

 Yes No
A-EP

E-commerce merchants who outsource all payment processing to PCI DSS validated third parties, and who have a website(s) that doesn’t directly receive cardholder data but that can impact the security of the payment transaction. No electronic storage, processing, or transmission of any cardholder data on the merchant’s systems or premises.

Applicable only to e-commerce channels.

 Yes No
B Merchants using only:
  • Imprint machines with no electronic cardholder data storage; and/or
  • Standalone, dial-out terminals with no electronic cardholder data storage.
Not applicable to e-commerce channels.		 No Yes
B-IP

Merchants using only standalone, PTS-approved payment terminals with an IP connection to the payment processor, with no electronic cardholder data storage.

Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

 No Yes
C

Merchants with payment application systems connected to the Internet, no electronic cardholder data storage.

Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

 No Yes
C-VT

Merchants who manually enter a single transaction at a time via a keyboard into an Internet-based virtual terminal solution that is provided and hosted by a PCI DSS validated third-party service provider. No electronic cardholder data storage.

Not applicable to e-commerce channels.

 No Yes
D (Merchant) All merchants not included in descriptions for the above types. Yes Yes
D (Service Provider) All service providers defined by a payment card brand as eligible to complete a SAQ. N/A N/A

 

You can click on the matrix below for a downloadable PDF that shows the PCI DSS v4 controls as they apply to the SAQ levels:

PCI DSS v4 policies & standards

PCI DSS Policies & Standards

For the SAQ types that were listed above, ComplianceForge offers the following PCI DSS v4.0 cybersecurity policies & standards templates: 

 

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