Defined Approach Requirements
3.3.1.3 The personal identification number (PIN) and the PIN block are not retained upon completion of the authorization process.
Customized Approach Objective
This requirement is not eligible for the customized approach.
Applicability Notes
PIN blocks are encrypted during the natural course of transaction processes, but even if an entity encrypts the PIN block again, it is still not allowed to be stored after the completion of the authorization process.
Defined Approach Testing Procedures
3.3.1.3 Examine data sources, to verify that PINs and PIN blocks are not stored upon completion of the authorization process.
Purpose of requirement and procedures
PIN and PIN blocks should be known only to the card owner or entity that issued the card. If this data is stolen, malicious individuals can execute fraudulent PIN-based transactions (for example, in-store purchases and ATM withdrawals). Not
storing this data reduces the probability of it being compromised.
Examples
Data sources to review to ensure that PIN and PIN blocks are not retained upon completion of the authorization process include, but are not limited to:
• Incoming transaction data.
• All logs (for example, transaction, history, debugging, error).
• History files.
• Trace files.
• Database schemas.
• Contents of databases, and on-premise and cloud data stores.
• Any existing memory/crash dump files.
Good practice
[No detail is provided here in the PCI DSS 4.0]
Definitions
[No detail is provided here in the PCI DSS 4.0]
Note: This sub-requirement requirement falls within the primary PCI DSS Requirement 3: Protect Stored Account Data and secondary requirement 3.3 Sensitive authentication data (SAD) is not stored after authorization..
What is the PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards formed in 2004 by Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services, JCB International and American Express. Governed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), the compliance scheme aims to secure credit and debit card transactions against data theft and fraud.
While the PCI SSC has no legal authority to compel compliance, it is a requirement for any business that processes credit or debit card transactions. PCI certification is also considered the best way to safeguard sensitive data and information, thereby helping businesses build long lasting and trusting relationships with their customers.
Source: https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/pci-dss-certification/
What is the PCI SSC
The PCI SSC mission is to enhance global payment account data security by developing standards and supporting services that drive education, awareness, and effective implementation by stakeholders. We achieve this with a strategic framework to guide our decision-making process and ensure that every initiative is aligned with our mission and supports the needs of the global payments industry.
The four pillars of our strategic framework include:
- Increase industry participation and knowledge in the PCI Standards development process and stakeholder support for standards implementation. This ensures that standards and resources reflect and address industry needs and challenges.
- Evolve security standards and validation programs to support a range of environments, technologies and methodologies for achieving security. This ensures standards and resources that support and enable safe commerce and the flexibility to use different approaches to meet those standards.
- Secure emerging payment channels via development of PCI Standards and resources to support broader payment acceptance. This enables safe commerce in new and emerging card and card-based payment channels such as mobile and internet-of-things.
- Increase standards alignment and consistency of PCI Standards to minimize redundancy and support effective implementation.
PCI DSS certification
PCI certification ensures the security of card data at your business through a set of requirements established by the PCI SSC. These include a number of commonly known best practices, such as:
- Installation of firewalls
- Encryption of data transmissions
- Use of anti-virus software
Source: https://www.imperva.com/learn/data-security/pci-dss-certification/
You can learn more about the PCI DSS at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/