Simplify PCI-DSS Compliance Requirements
With the widespread use of credit cards and other payment cards cards in online shopping, banking, and other business transactions, credit card data exposure and fraud is on the rise. To combat this growing menace, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) was created to protect cardholder data by leading credit card institutions like Visa and MasterCard. PCI-DSS encompasses twelve requirements for security management, policies, procedures, network architecture, software design, and other critical protective measures.
To govern this, the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) owns, develops, maintains, and distributes PCI DSS compliance. The council provides guidance on external on-site qualified security assessors (QSAs) and internal security assessors (ISAs) to validate compliance, the qualification of PCI Forensic Investigators (PFI) that act on compromised cases, and the certification of Approved Security Vendors (ASVs) to perform external vulnerability scans and deliver an Attestation of Compliance.
Arctic Wolf® enables companies to meet certain PCI-DSS compliance requirements through Arctic Wolf® Managed Detection and Response combined with Arctic Wolf® Managed Risk. Arctic Wolf simplifies PCI DSS compliance with actionable intelligence, and vulnerability assessment reporting that is customized to meet your business needs with the help of a dedicated Concierge Security® Team.
PCI-DSS Compliance Requirements
Cardholder information may be stored in a variety of repositories, such as file servers, databases, access logs, and other types of unstructured and structured data repositories. Safeguarding cardholder data in these repositories in a manner compliant with PCI DSS requires diligent administration and close cooperation between the IT teams and the many business units that need access to the data.
Finding the right balance between the tasks supported by your IT organization and the checks automated through Arctic Wolf enables you to streamline PCI DSS compliance and reduce cost.
“Arctic Wolf acts as a force multiplier for our IT team. Arctic Wolf® ensures Zelle’s and our clients’ data always remain secure. It has improved our security posture and helped us meet client security obligations. “
Brian Hustad, Director of Information Technology, Zelle LLP
The primary PCI DSS requirements are:
| Objective | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Build and maintain secure network | Monitor changes to firewall configurations and use of default passwords |
| Protect cardholder data | Monitor cardholder data at rest and in motion, to ensure that it is not going to malicious IP addresses/locations |
| Maintain a vulnerability management program | Regularly run vulnerability scans on internet-facing and internal systems that process cardholder data |
| Implement strong access control measures | Monitor all login activity with integration to Active Directory services and monitor anomalous user behavior |
| Regularly monitor and test networks | Continuously monitor network traffic 24/7, and regularly assess network for vulnerabilities |
| Maintain an information security policy | Focus on detecting and responding to incidents and monitor incident response workflow to closure |
Arctic Wolf Compliance Solution for PCI-DSS
Arctic Wolf monitors all activity in on-premises IT infrastructure and in cloud applications using physical/virtual Arctic Wolf sensors. Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response continuously monitors network flows and ingests log records from an unlimited number of log sources. It uses human-augmented machine learning to accurately detect and respond to advanced attacks. Arctic Wolf Managed Risk leverages our industry-leading security operations solutions to continuously scan your internal and external networks along with host-based agents on endpoints to quantify risk-based vulnerabilities.
An Arctic Wolf Concierge Security Team (CST) augments your IT staff with security expertise, hunts down advanced zero-day attacks, continuously scans for vulnerabilities, identifies PCI DSS violations, and provides customized compliance reports to meet your PCI DSS requirements. The table below shows how Arctic Wolf enables you to address each section of the 12 PCI-DSS requirements.
| Requirement | Arctic Wolf Solution |
|---|---|
| PCI-DSS 1: Install and maintain firewall configuration to protect data | |
| Collect logs from firewall devices to ensure and validate compliance. | Arctic Wolf monitors all services, protocols, and ports; validates inbound and outbound traffic; and captures event alerts related to network and firewall activity. |
| PCI-DSS 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and security parameters | |
| Monitor network for anomalous behavior and signs of insufficient configuration. | Arctic Wolf provides a record of all network services used and alerts on unauthorized services and insecure protocols. |
| PCI-DSS 3: Protect stored cardholder data | |
| Monitor changes in cardholder environment and alert on changes to critical services. | Arctic Wolf monitors activity on all systems that handle cardholder data, and alerts on anomalous network connections to malicious IPs or geolocations. |
| PCI-DSS 4: Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks | |
| Monitor network use to ensure proper network protocols are used in cardholder environments. | Arctic Wolf monitors and alerts on unauthorized or unencrypted services in use, and can detect connections from unauthorized wireless access points. |
| PCI-DSS 5: Protect all systems against malware and regularly update AV software | |
| Alert on vulnerabilities and advanced malware from log data collected from endpoint protection solutions. | Arctic Wolf continuously scans internal and external networks, and endpoints for unpatched vulnerabilities, and collects logs from endpoint security solutions to present alerts when advanced malware is detected. |
| PCI-DSS 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and applications | |
| Monitor for vulnerabilities and software update activity to help organizations develop and maintain secure systems. | Arctic Wolf continuously scans internal and external networks, and endpoints for unpatched vulnerabilities, and reports on status of security posture of all applications, systems, and devices. |
| PCI-DSS 7: Restrict access to cardholder data by business need-to-know | |
| Monitor access privilege assignments and suspicious data access. | Arctic Wolf collects relevant data from access control systems and Active Directory, monitoring and validating access to cardholder data and system components through account creation, object access, and privilege assignment and revocation. |
| PCI-DSS 8: Identify and authenticate access to system components | |
| Identify shared account usage in the network, especially privileged accounts with more than one user. | Arctic Wolf monitors Active Directory logs, and reports on all user account activity, from account creation to account removal. It also provides alerts on shared account usage. |
| PCI-DSS 9: Restrict physical access to cardholder data | |
| Monitor physical access control devices for access attempts to areas which host cardholder data. | Arctic Wolf alerts on physical access failures and details on other physical access activities by integrating logs generated by those devices. |
| PCI-DSS 10: Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data | |
| Automate collection, centralization, and monitoring of logs from servers, applications, security, and other devices. | Arctic Wolf collects and aggregates access-related logs from multiples devices/systems and monitors network flow data on sensors, which is securely analyzed by the Concierge Security Team to detect advanced threats and vulnerabilities on systems that handle cardholder data. |
| PCI-DSS 11: Regularly test security systems and processes | |
| Collect logs from IDS/IPS systems to ensure and validate compliance. | Arctic Wolf sensors deployed on customer premises include IDS/IPS functionality that can generate real-time alerts on intrusion-related activity. |
| PCI-DSS 12: Maintain a policy that addresses information security | |
| Provide centralized visibility and control to support organizational security policies, including incident handling and response. | Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response has centralized security policies that can be customized by the Arctic Wolf Concierge Security Team to meet customer compliance reporting needs. |
How Arctic Wolf Managed Security Solutions Help With PCI DSS Compliance
Arctic Wolf has extensive experience partnering with financial institutions, merchants, and service providers such as First United Bank and Trust, Advanced Financial, and more. Arctic Wolf can perform independent monthly or quarterly vulnerability scan audits, and produce reports that satisfy PCI DSS Requirement 11.2.
Arctic Wolf Managed Risk is a vulnerability management and risk assessment solution that helps covered entities:
- Perform continuous vulnerability scanning of internal and external networks, and endpoints
- Implement secure configuration policies based on security controls benchmarks, such as CIS
- Identify and prioritize vulnerabilities based on threat exposure, asset, and severity
- Audit system access, authentication, and other security controls to detect policy violations
- Automatically detect and scan new devices as they enter the network
- Create, assign, track, and verify remediation tasks
- Demonstrate compliance and communicate progress with reports, analytics, and live dashboards from the Arctic Wolf Concierge Security Team
Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response (MDR) is an industry-leading solution that provides 24×7 threat monitoring, analysis, and incident response services managed by cybersecurity experts. Arctic Wolf MDR enables organizations to:
- Continuously monitor network traffic to detect malicious activity to/from suspicious IP addresses and domains
- Automatically collect, normalize, analyze, and retain log data from existing networks, systems, and applications
- Identify malicious files/.exe’s, traffic, and bad IP address/domains
- Monitor cloud services, SaaS applications, IaaS infrastructure, and SecaaS services to identify malicious user activity
- Generate customizable reports for compliance reporting
- Identify critical security incidents from millions of suspicious investigations, escalate responses, and propose remediation action
About Arctic Wolf: Arctic Wolf® is the market leader in security operations. Using the cloud-native Arctic Wolf® Platform, we provide security operations as a concierge service. Highly trained Concierge Security® experts work as an extension of your team to provide 24×7 monitoring, detection, and response, as well as ongoing risk management to proactively protect systems and data while continually strengthening your security posture.
For more information about Arctic Wolf, visit arcticwolf.com
