News Releases

Trustwave Supports PCI DSS and PA DSS Version 2.0

Written by | Oct 30, 2010 5:25:00 AM

CHICAGO (October 29, 2010) -  Trustwave, the leading provider of payment card industry compliance solutions, announces its support of the updated Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA DSS), both Version 2.0, released by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), October 28, 2010. The new version includes existing requirement clarifications, provides additional guidance and reveals minor changes to evolving requirements.

"After a thorough review of both the PCI DSS and PA DSS, we noted there were no significant changes that would adversely affect our compliant customers or customers in process to become compliant," said Robert J. McCullen, chairman and CEO of Trustwave. "We stand behind the decisions made by the Council and believe this new version will help further secure payment data."

The changes to the standards include better alignment between the PA DSS and PCI DSS. In addition, changes to the Self-assessment Questionnaire will better align with the changes to the PCI DSS, and bulleted lists will be broken out into sub-requirements.

After reviewing the updates to both standards, Trustwave believes the following changes are most important to address:

PCI DSS Version 2.0

  • Scoping the Cardholder Data Environment (CDE): The PCI SSC clarified the responsibility of the assessed organization's accuracy of their PCI DSS scope by identifying all locations and flows of cardholder data and ensuring they are included in the PCI DSS Scope.
  • Additional Sources for Secure Coding for Non-Web Based Applications: The PCI SSC clarified that additional sources like SANS CWE Top 25 and CERT Secure Coding, in addition to OWASP, can be used for best practices guidance for vulnerability management.

PA DSS Version 2.0

  • Facilitate Centralized Logging: Pertaining to requirement 4.4, the new version will mandate that payment applications facilitate a merchant's ability to assimilate logs into their centralized log server.
  • Cryptographic Clarification: Pertaining to requirement 2.7, cryptographic key material stored by previous versions will now be rendered irretrievable.
  • Merger of Requirements 10 and 11: This will help further align the PCI DSS and PA DSS.

"Based on our investigations, these changes align with the problems encountered by our customers," said Nicholas J. Percoco, senior vice president and head of SpiderLabs, Trustwave's advanced security team. "Centralizing logging will help organizations more efficiently investigate an anomaly that may be an indication of a cardholder data breach or an attempt."

"We are pleased to see the changes focused on alignment of PCI and PA DSS as well as the elimination of redundant requirements," said James Paul, senior vice president of delivery at Trustwave. "The changes will help clarify the relationships and demarcation between PCI and PA DSS assessments."

To learn more about these and other key changes and how they might affect a merchant, Trustwave has archived its recent webinar, "PCI DSS 2.0: What Can You Expect?" and posted it here for review, on-demand.

The changes to both standards take effect January 1, 2011. The sunset date for the existing standards is December 31, 2011. Any organization submitting a Report on Compliance or Report of Validation after December 31, 2011 will have to comply with the Version 2.0 standards.

For more information about the PCI DSS and PA DSS, please visit www.pcisecuritystandards.org.

About Trustwave

Trustwave is a leading provider of on-demand and subscription-based information security and payment card industry compliance management solutions to businesses and government entities throughout the world. For organizations faced with today's challenging data security and compliance environment, Trustwave provides a unique approach with comprehensive solutions that include its flagship TrustKeeper® compliance management software and other proprietary security solutions including SIEM , WAF , EV SSL certificates  and secure digital certificates . Trustwave has helped hundreds of thousands of organizations-ranging from Fortune 500 businesses and large financial institutions to small and medium-sized retailers-manage compliance and secure their network infrastructures, data communications and critical information assets. Trustwave is headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. For more information, visit https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/.