PCI DSS Gap Assessment Services

A PCI gap assessment compares your company’s existing security controls and practices against the PCI DSS requirements that apply to your environment.

The purpose is to identify the difference between where your security program is today and where it needs to be to address applicable PCI DSS requirements.

A gap assessment can help your company get ready for a formal PCI assessment, respond to customer needs, move to PCI DSS v4.0.1, address past assessment findings, or just understand weaknesses in your payment environment.

The assessment can examine both technical and administrative controls.

That may include access control, authentication, vulnerability management, network security, security policies, logging and monitoring, incident response, security testing, employee awareness, third-party relationships, and other controls relevant to your PCI scope.

The exact scope depends on how your business handles payment card data.

PCI DSS has many detailed requirements, and many businesses find it hard to figure out which ones apply to them.

A gap assessment gives your company a way to answer that question before the validation process begins.

It can uncover issues such as outdated policies, incomplete documentation, insufficient access reviews, weak network vulnerability management processes, missing security evidence, inadequate network segmentation, or security controls that exist but do not operate as intended.

It can also reveal a bigger issue: having the wrong PCI scope.

A company that includes too many systems may create unnecessary compliance work. A company that excludes a system that can affect payment security may create a much more serious problem.

Tanner Security helps businesses understand their requirements and the associated security risks.

Before evaluating controls, your company needs to understand which systems and processes are included in the assessment.

The Cardholder Data Environment (CDE) includes systems and components that store, process, or transmit payment account data, along with other components that can affect the security of that environment.

PCI scope can be very different from one business to another.

An e-commerce company may rely on web applications, APIs, cloud infrastructure, payment-page integrations, and third-party processors.

A retailer may rely primarily on POS systems, payment terminals, internal networks, and supporting infrastructure.

A service provider may have entirely different responsibilities based on the services it provides and the systems it can access.

Tanner Security reviews your payment environment and helps you see where PCI requirements apply. This helps your company avoid wasting time on systems that are not in scope and ensures you do not miss systems that are.

1. Specialized Expertise: Our team of PCI experts brings extensive experience conducting PCI gap assessments across diverse business sectors. We stay updated with the ever-evolving PCI DSS requirements to provide accurate and relevant reviews.
2. Tailored Solutions: Recognizing the uniqueness of each business, we offer personalized PCI gap assessments customized to your specific business needs and payment card data processes.
3. Holistic Assessments: Our assessments delve into every aspect of your payment card data security, from network configurations and access controls to encryption protocols and employee training. We leave no stone unturned to ensure your compliance.
4. Risk Mitigation: Identifying and addressing compliance gaps is critical to reducing the risk of data breaches and the associated financial and reputational damage. Our assessments offer actionable insights to help you prioritize security enhancements.
5. Cost-Effective Approaches: Our cost-effective solutions will help you implement essential security measures efficiently and cost-effectively.

Ensure Your PCI DSS Compliance with Tanner Security

PCI DSS compliance protects payment card data and maintains customer trust. Partner with Tanner Security for expert PCI consulting services and ensure your organization meets the highest security and compliance standards. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you achieve PCI DSS compliance.

A PCI gap assessment focuses on the controls that apply to your environment.

Depending on scope, Tanner Security can evaluate areas such as network security controls, secure configurations, account-data protection, encryption, malware protection, web application security, access control, authentication, physical security, logging and monitoring, vulnerability management, security testing, incident response, employee awareness, policies, and third-party service-provider management.

We also evaluate evidence supporting those controls.

For example, a business may have a written access-control policy but no documented evidence for reviews of privileged accounts.

A company may perform vulnerability scans but lack a consistent process for remediating critical findings.

A firm may maintain an incident-response plan but never test whether employees know what to do during an actual event.

A gap assessment uncovers these issues.

Step 1: Understand Your Payment Environment: We begin by learning how your business accepts and processes payment card data. We review systems, applications, networks, payment providers, workflows, and relevant third-party relationships.

Step 2: Define PCI Scope: We help identify the Cardholder Data Environment and the systems and controls that can affect its security.

Step 3: Assess Current Controls: We compare your current security practices with the applicable PCI DSS requirements and document areas that require attention.

Step 4: Prioritize Gaps: We help your team prioritize remediation according to security risk, business impact, compliance requirements, and available resources.

Step 5: Remediate: Your team addresses identified deficiencies. Tanner Security can provide guidance with security controls, policies, technical remediation, vulnerability management, penetration testing, and other related activities.

Step 6: Prepare for Validation: We help your team prepare the evidence, documentation, testing results, and other materials required by your applicable PCI assessment process.

Step 7: Maintain Compliance: PCI compliance does not end when the assessment is complete. Updates to payment applications, infrastructure, vendors, networks, and security controls can all impact your PCI environment.

We help businesses view PCI compliance as an ongoing security process rather than just an annual paperwork task.

A PCI gap assessment can benefit businesses of many sizes and industries that handle payment card data.

Retailers, e-commerce companies, healthcare businesses, financial services firms, hospitality companies, professional services firms, software providers, and other small to medium sized businesses may use gap assessments to prepare for PCI validation or strengthen their payment security program.

Usually, how complex your payment environment is matters more than how many employees you have.

A small business with a simple outsourced payment process may have a relatively straightforward PCI environment. A larger business that operates its own payment applications, networks, databases, and integrations may require a much more detailed assessment.

E-commerce businesses face additional considerations because online payment transactions can involve web applications, payment pages, JavaScript, APIs, third-party scripts, payment processors, cloud infrastructure, and customer browsers.

PCI SSC provides specific guidance and validation criteria for e-commerce payment environments, including requirements related to payment-page scripts and their protection. The applicable SAQ and requirements depend on the company’s payment architecture and eligibility.

Tanner Security can review the IT environment and processes surrounding your online payment systems and help identify gaps that could affect PCI scope or security.

Using a third-party payment processor can make your payment environment simpler, but it does not automatically remove your PCI responsibilities.

Your company still needs to understand what systems remain in scope, what security responsibilities the provider assumes, and what evidence your business needs to maintain.

PCI SSC advises businesses completing SAQs to confirm their eligibility with the entity to which the SAQ will be submitted and to understand any more requirements or instructions.

Tanner Security can help your business evaluate these relationships and document the responsibilities that remain with your company.

Tanner Security brings more than two decades of cybersecurity consulting experience to PCI assessments and related security projects.

Our broader services include PCI consulting, PCI CDE penetration testing, network penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, IT audits, IT risk assessments, policy development, and other cybersecurity services.

This broad experience helps our consultants understand how PCI requirements connect to real-world technology.

We do not treat a PCI gap as an isolated compliance issue.

A weakness in identity management, network segmentation, vulnerability management, cloud security, or application security can affect PCI compliance and create broader cybersecurity risks.

Our job is to explain these links and help your company focus on what matters most.

We also provide fixed-fee proposals based on the defined scope of work.

Our PCI consulting services support your company from the initial scoping steps through compliance.

PCI 4.0 Consulting: We provide expert guidance on navigating the new requirements and changes introduced in PCI DSS 4.0. Our consultants help you understand and implement these updates to ensure continued compliance and security.

PCI DSS Compliance Assessments: A PCI compliance assessment provides a wider review of your security controls against applicable PCI DSS requirements. Tanner Security evaluates areas such as access control, authentication, vulnerability management, network security, security policies, logging, monitoring, incident response, and security testing. The goal goes beyond simply answering “yes” or “no.” We want your leadership team to understand where risks exist, why the controls matter, and what your company should do next.

PCI Policy Consulting: PCI DSS requires more than technical controls. Your company also needs policies and procedures that support the security of payment card data. Tanner Security can review and develop policies covering information security, acceptable use, access management, vulnerability management, incident response, third-party risk, security awareness, data retention, and other areas relevant to your PCI program. We focus on practical policies your employees can use, not just generic documents that get ignored.

PCI CDE Penetration Testing: Penetration testing goes beyond identifying possible vulnerabilities. It attempts to determine whether an attacker can exploit weaknesses and what access that attacker could obtain. Tanner Security performs PCI CDE penetration testing to evaluate the security of systems and networks that support payment card processing. Our testing can include vulnerability identification, manual validation, exploitation, privilege escalation, lateral movement, and other techniques that fit the approved scope.

Network Vulnerability Assessment: Identify known vulnerabilities across systems, network infrastructure, and other technologies that support your payment environment.

Network Penetration Testing: Evaluate internal and external attack paths to determine whether attackers can exploit weaknesses and move through your environment.

Web Application Penetration Testing: Evaluate web applications and APIs for vulnerabilities involving authentication, authorization, session management, input validation, business logic, and other application-security risks.