Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

A 403 Labs QSA, PCI Columnist Walt Conway has worked in payments and technology for more than 30 years, 10 of them with Visa.

What are the PCI stories we are likely to see in the coming year? We know there is a new/revised version of PCI due to become effective in October, but what are the likely changes?

And let’s not forget the card brands themselves or the technology vendors who constantly promise to make merchants’ lives easier (if maybe a little more expensive). With a new year in front of us (and caution behind), here are some forecasts and speculation for the coming year in PCI.

May 1st will see the updated release of PCI labeled “version 2.0.” My reading of the tealeaves is that the Council will take the opportunity to declare the revised standard a whole new version rather than simply an upgrade from the current version 1.2. It may all be appearances, but calling it a new version communicates the evolution of the standard.

Some will criticize the move contending PCI is a shifting, unstable standard, but I don’t think too many people buy that argument. PCI needs to evolve to reflect the latest attack vectors and technology, and tagging the latest release as a new version communicates that dynamism. And yes, it’s good PR for the Council, too.

Version 2.0 could mandate automated cardholder data discovery. One change I anticipate is mandating the use of automated cardholder data discovery tools. I say that for a couple of reasons. First, the Council has been encouraging QSAs to use data discovery tools in our assessments. They even provide a list of both open source and commercial products at QSA training sessions complete with examples of how to configure them.

Then at September’s PCI Community Meeting the Council gave Verizon a prime slot to pitch their data breach investigations report. That report highlighted that in 38 percent of breaches—representing fully 67 percent of compromised records–the breached entity had no idea it was storing the cardholder data. You can’t protect what you don’t know you have, and the only way to be sure you know where all your data are is to conduct an automated search.Therefore, I am looking for the Council to require automated data discovery starting in October.

Why is this important for merchants? If you have a lot of locations, you have work to do setting up and scanning all those databases, workstations and servers. Especially watch to see if the Council decides to implement data discovery like it did wireless scanning (Requirement 11.1).

If this happens, merchants will not be able to sample locations and will have to search each one. The good news is that you can conduct these searches internally and there are good open source products available. Your QSA likely would only need to verify the results of your automated discovery and to review the scope of your search.

Council PCI training will be oversubscribed. Both Level 1and Level 2 (thank you, MasterCard) merchants have an incentive to send staff to the Council’s PCI training. The training runs about $1,000 per person for the two-and-a-half day session, but it can be a bargain if you can leverage it to reduce the effort in your annual assessment.

As a QSA, I love it when my client knows a lot about PCI since it makes the assessment go much smoother. Another advantage for merchants is that you are less likely to fall afoul of knuckleheaded mistakes like missing a quarterly scan when you have somebody on staff who knows and understands the requirements.

I have two words of advice to those who take the training: pay attention. The training is good if a bit tedious at times, but there is a test at the end to get the credential (details are still being decided). You won’t want to explain to your boss how you blew the test (and the budget). The training will continue to be across regions, so check the Council’s website for the dates and locations. Sign up early, as space will be limited.