SMB Guide To Credit Card Regulations, Part 2: The Low-Hanging Fruit

The PCI Security Standards Council has created a document outlining a prioritized approach to help businesses comply with PCI DSS. It's a way to grab the low-hanging fruit, helping businesses tackle some of the more simple tasks that can provide a greater security ROI. I've boiled it down here to help small to midsize businesses (SMBs) get started.The official document is about 15 pages of an organized chart, outlining tasks and subtasks as they relate to the PCI DSS requirements and the six primary milestones of the Prioritized Approach document. Those six milestones and goals are:

1: Remove sensitive data and limit data retention.

2: Protect the networks.

3: Secure payment card software applications.

4: Monitor and control access to your systems.

5: Protect stored cardholder data.

6: Finalize remaining compliance efforts, and ensure controls are in place to meet the rest of the PCI DSS requirements.

Instead of regurgitating the dozen or so pages of itemized tasks, I thought it would be more useful to identify a set of specific tasks for small businesses to address, by category. Each task relates to one or more milestones in the Prioritized Approach and helps achieve one or more of the PCI DSS requirements.

Network and Device Low-Hanging Fruit