Townsend Security Data Privacy Blog

What You Need to Know About PCI DSS v3.0

Posted by Liz Townsend on Jan 3, 2014 1:36:00 PM
Quote from PCI SSC

Every few years since its inception in 2006 the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) has revised and updated the the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) and Payment Application Data Security Standards (PA DSS) to improve security for the payment card industry worldwide. These revisions, clarifications, and new points of guidance are based on considerations and recommendations by experts in the field of data security as well as over 700 organizations that process cardholder data. At the end of their review period, the PCI SSC concluded that revisions needed to be made based on these problematic themes in the payment card industry:

  • Lack of education and awareness of how to implement and maintain PCI standards - a major problem since the improper implementation of PCI standards leads to data loss and breaches
  • Weak passwords and authentication
  • Lack of consistency of responsibility when implementing necessary third party security features
  • Slow detection of threats
  • Inconsistency of PCI assessments1

Since the release of v3.0 in November 2013, many organizations affected by PCI DSS and PA DSS are asking: Are there new revisions regarding encryption and key management in v3.0, and what do I need to do in order to meet new recommendations, regulations, and best practices? Luckily, much of version 3.0 hasn’t changed from 2.0. However, many important clarifications have been made. In section 3 of PCI DSS (the section pertaining to encryption and management of encryption keys), version 3.0 makes clarifications regarding these aspects of encryption and key management2:

  • Stricter controls around the protection and deletion of authentication data
  • Key management procedures must be both implemented and documented
  • The requirement of PAN masking
  • The critical use of dual control and split knowledge
  • The mandate that logical access for disk encryption must be managed separately and independently of the native operating system authentication and access control mechanisms, and that decryption keys must not be associated with user accounts.

Version 3.0 has also split requirement 3.5.2 into two separate requirements to emphasize the importance of both storing encryption keys in a secure location (3.5.2) as well as in the fewest possible locations (3.5.3)2

Based on the themes they found and the revisions made, it is clear that the PCI SSC is moving toward making their regulations stricter. What’s even more interesting is that in this last review, more than half of the recommendations were taken from experts and organizations outside of the United States. This is likely because the United States is farther behind other countries such as the European Union in terms of credit card data security, and since the PCI SSC sets worldwide regulations, they must set standards that meet the highest expectations.

We recommend all organizations worldwide look to the highest standards and follow best practices and recommendations (whether they are required or not) since these evolving requirements are based on current conditions and threats in the data security world and indicate future hardened regulations.

To learn more about encryption key management best practices download NIST Special Publication 800-57 “Recommendations for Key Management: Parts 1, 2 & 3” 

1 PA-DSS & PCI DSS change highlights

2 PCI DSS 3.0 summary of changes

Topics: Compliance, PCI DSS, Best Practices, PCI, PCI SSC