Merchant Resources

PCI DSS is a set of baseline technical and operational requirements designed to protect payment account data. It is intended for all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data (CHD) and/or sensitive authentication data (SAD), or could impact the security of CHD and/or SAD. This includes all entities involved in payment account processing.

Each of PCI SSC’s founding payment brand members (American Express, Discover, JCB International, MasterCard and Visa) currently have their own PCI compliance programs for the protection of their affiliated payment card account data.  Entities should contact the payment brands directly for information about their compliance programs. Contact details for the payment brands can be found in How do I contact the payment card brands?

Questions regarding compliance requirements for payment card account data affiliated with other payment networks or brands should be referred to the applicable payment network or brand.

PCI SSC also encourages entities to be aware of potential nuances in local laws and regulations that could affect applicability of the PCI standards.

Encryption of cardholder data with strong cryptography is an acceptable method of rendering the data unreadable according to PCI DSS Requirement 3.5.1. However, encryption alone is generally insufficient to render the cardholder data out of scope for PCI DSS and does not remove the need for PCI DSS in that environment. The entity’s environment is still in scope for PCI DSS due to the presence of cardholder data. For example, for a merchant card-present environment, there is physical access to the payment cards to complete a transaction and there may also be paper reports or receipts with cardholder data. Similarly, in merchant card-not-present environments, such as mail-order/telephone-order and e-commerce, payment card details are provided via channels that need to be evaluated and protected according to PCI DSS.

The following are each in scope for PCI DSS:

• Systems performing encryption and/or decryption of cardholder data, and systems performing key management functions,
• Encrypted cardholder data that is not isolated from the encryption and decryption and key, management processes,
• Encrypted cardholder data that is present on a system or media that also contains the decryption key,
• Encrypted cardholder data that is present in the same environment as the decryption key,
• Encrypted cardholder data that is accessible to an entity that also has access to the decryption key.

Note: A PCI-listed P2PE solution can significantly reduce the number of PCI DSS requirements applicable to a merchant’s cardholder data environment. However, it does not completely remove the applicability of PCI DSS in the merchant environment.

Where a third party only receives and/or stores data encrypted by another entity, and where they do not have the ability to decrypt the data, the third party may be able to consider the encrypted data out of scope if certain conditions are met. For further guidance, refer to FAQ 1233: How does encrypted cardholder data impact PCI DSS scope for third-party service providers?

Additionally, for information about how a merchant may receive scope reduction through use of a validated P2PE solution, refer to FAQ 1158: What effect does the use of a PCI-listed P2PE solution have on a merchant’s PCI DSS validation?

PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs) are validation tools for use by SAQ-eligible merchants and service providers to perform and report the results of their PCI DSS self-assessments. There are several different SAQs, developed for specific types of environments as defined in each SAQ’s eligibility criteria.

Refer to the following FAQs:

FAQ 1215: What is a PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire?

FAQ 1133: Why are there multiple PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQs)?

PCI DSS is intended for all entities involved in payment processing, including merchants, regardless of their size or transaction volume.  When compared with larger merchants, small merchants often have simpler environments, with limited amounts of cardholder data and fewer systems that need protecting, which can help reduce their PCI DSS compliance effort.  

Whether a small merchant is required to validate compliance is determined by the individual payment brands. For questions regarding compliance validation and reporting requirements, merchants should contact their acquirer (merchant bank) or payment brand they do business with, as applicable.