PCI DSS Compliance Email Software
A self-imposes security standard authored by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) industry mandates securing all credit card transactions with proper cybersecurity adaptive controls. PCI-DSS compliance regulations mandate all merchants accepting digital payment comply with this standard.
The companies that process payments and issue cards, not the government, control the security standards and rules, including those for stores, and follow industry best practices for data security.
“PCI DSS compliance requirement 4.0 instructs businesses to encrypt the transmission of transaction data across open public networks, including email, with the proper security control capabilities.”
Are you interested to discover more about email encryption and data loss prevention products for PCI DSS compliance, extending the ability to lower your risk from vendors like Trustifi?
Click here to see a demo of Trustifi email security compliance software in action here!
Business Requirements Leveraging Email Encryption for PCI DSS 4.2 Compliance
Becoming PCI DSS compliant requires any organization accepting and processing electronic payments to perform a series of self-assessments of their consumer data environment and engage third-party auditors to validate each layer of security against known security standards. These auditors must confirm if the merchant has enabled all necessary controls to ensure secure storage and processing of all digital transactions.
Depending on the volume of transactions, each organization must complete a monthly, quarterly, or annual audit. Audits are essential for merchants to help reduce the risk of their digital processing systems. Audits will help merchants meet compliance security standards and requirements to offer their clients a digital transaction processing service.
Risk of Unsecured Emails?
Despite the data security risk events, sending PCI DSS data through email is common. However, the email solutions' data must remain encrypted and secure to lower the risk. Failure to encrypt email messages defined in the PCI DSS standards section 4.2 is a clear violation. Businesses also must encrypt transactional log data before emailing it to block an unauthorized view of the content with proper control.
Violations of any PCI DSS compliance mandate impact an organization in different ways.
Efforts to Avoid Financial Penalties
The issuers and processors penalize merchants based on the volume and severity of the events. If the violations are severe enough or frequent, the merchant may lose the ability to accept digital payments.
Loss of Trust
Loss of customer trust between the merchant and the consumer affects the business in several ways. Consumers will discontinue using the merchant because of the increased risk of exposure to their personal information. These buyers inform people close to them not to engage with this business because of the cybersecurity events.
Legal Consequences
“Consumer data theft and other security events puts the merchant in a tricky legal situation with major issuers including American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and other digital payment methods. “
Consumers who have had their financial transaction information stolen will report the event to the bank or issuer. After a review, these companies will relieve the cardholder of the disputed charges. The issuer assumes the financial loss, and they pass these losses on to the merchant.
Transaction Cost Increases
Once a merchant has been found liable for not maintaining a secure infrastructure preventing hackers' unauthorized access to sensitive data, the processing companies will increase their percentage per transaction fee to help recover losses from fraudulent transactions caused by data breaches.
Loss of Merchant Account
If a merchant continuously becomes negligent and out of PCI DSS compliance, issuing companies will discontinue servicing the merchant. For retail stores and e-commerce sites, this cuts off their ability to accept digital money for their products and services.
Known Payment Thefts in 2024
Remittance or payment theft events frequently occur when there are lapses in data security detailed inside PCI-DSS standards. Most are against retail locations, e-commerce sites, and processors. Banks, specifically those like Capital One that issue cards, also become targets for hackers.
Here are a few case studies of known payment card data breaches:
Case Study 1: Florida-based Slim CD
On September 6, 2024, Slim CD announced that an unauthorized third party accessed its primary system from August 17, 2023, to June 15, 2024, potentially allowing access to consumers' data. The internal investigation team believes the initial attack started with phishing emails with malware.
Cause
Consumers who purchase goods or services from vendors with a card may have unknowingly shared their financial information with Slim CD, exposing it to criminals.
Financial Losses
“Almost 1.7 million consumers in the US and Canada may have had their data exposed in a massive digital payment database breach, and the financial losses are still being determined.”
Remediation
Slim CD did not specify which systems were breached but confirmed that someone may have accessed consumer data from June 14 to June 15, 2024, alerting the company to the intrusion.
However, Slim CD management didn't apologize for the data breach nor admit whether they currency in compliance with PCI DSS data security standard or if failed any recent compliance audits. They recommended each cardholder sign up for a free report and continue to watch their monthly bank statements for malicious charges. Slim CD provided no additional financial relief or explanation outside of this recommendation. PCI counsel reserved the right to fine the processing banks serving Slim CD, however, they chose not to.
Case Study 2: Avis Car Rental
Avis reported a breach of its business application from August 3 to August 6, 2024, detected on August 5.
Cause
The car rental company Avis experienced a data breach that affected nearly 300,000 customers when an unauthorized third party accessed one of its business applications. This PCI DSS compliance violation showed the challenge organizations like Avis have with securing the data. Even with monthly audits validating security controls, processes, and procedures in place, Avis failed to protect the data by deploying security tool solutions, security management solutions, continuous monitoring solutions, and leveraging a 24x7 monitoring center.
Financial Losses
As a major rental car company, Avis must protect sensitive consumer data. However, it failed in this duty, leaving data vulnerable to hackers. The actual financial losses are still to be determined. Failure to comply with PCI DSS will cause countless lawsuits, fines, and possible suspension of remittance processing functionality.
Remediation
There is a class-action lawsuit pending in a New Jersey court. The case is ongoing. Avis provided no additional to the victims.
How Cyber Liability Insurance Plays a Role in Security Breaches?
Clients in the cyber insurance industry continue to suffer from ransomware attacks, malware, and identity theft. Retailer organizations also face similar attacks, which result in their premiums rising or their coverage becoming discontinued.
Cyber liability insurance policies help pay for most fines and PCI DSS violations, including covering the cost of credit reporting for all victims.
While cyber insurance organizations offer merchants financial relief from security incidents, insurance carriers in proceeding renewal cycles will demand improvements from a recent security breach, including providing accurate reports and 24x7 monitoring of security software solutions.
This mandate also includes upgrading their various protection layers and security controls, processes, procedures, and disaster recovery capabilities across all PCI-related platforms and deploying security software systems to protect applications, connectors, and databases. The cyber insurance carriers will also require the merchant to hire a third-party vulnerability assessment firm to validate that the software security controls and processes are secure and have the means to prevent a cyberattack. The merchant should expect their cyber insurance premiums to go up because of the cost of the cybercrime and the assessments.
Role Of Data Loss Prevention In PCI DSS Compliance
Secure data loss prevention (DLP) solutions are vital cybersecurity software tools that prevent sensitive information from leaking via email. While not explicitly mandated by PCI DSS compliance, this product helps meet key compliance goals by protecting customer transaction data and preventing accidental data leaks.
Cyber insurance carriers look for DLP functionality when evaluating or renewing new policyholders.
Role of Email Encryption in PCI DSS Compliance
Contrary to DLP, email encryption is required by PCI compliance mandates. All emails containing any form of PCI DSS transactional data need to be encrypted. Email security providers like Trustifi integrate email encryption software with DLP, scanning all outbound messages for sensitive information and encrypting each message to help protect consumer data.
Role of Multifactor Authentication(MFA)
A multi-factor authentication (MFA) product is required for PCI compliance for all accounts that access cardholder data, including securing remote host and console administrative access to digital remittance platforms. Leveraging MFA helps prevent cyber criminals from executing financial card fraud, accessing previous payment card transactions, and reducing PCI fines.
Role of Cybersecurity Training for PCI DSS
Another critical element for merchants seeking insurance coverage or preventing ransomware payments is scheduling quarterly security awareness training. Security awareness training combined with attack simulation helps users learn more about payment card cyberattacks. Training has proven to help reduce the financial impact of a data breach. Cyber insurance brokers also look favorably at merchants who offer training to help mitigate legal expenses, help employees learn more about cybersecurity attacks, and understand the implications of PCI-DSS fines.
With Trustifi’s One-Click Compliance™, the solution takes the Complexity Out of compliance.
Embedded within the Trustifi consolidated email console, merchants can now enable a pre-configured email security policy for PCI-DSS. This policy contains email encryption functionality combined with DLP rules. By merging these capabilities, merchants can increase the level of protection that aligns strongly with PCI 4.2 with a single click.
Why Trustifi as an Email Security and Compliance Vendor?
Trustifi is a market leader in advanced email security software powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Their experience in compliance frameworks, including specific support for PCI, continues to win praise in the industry and with clients.
Case Study: Roche Bros. Supermarkets
Challenge:
Roche Bros. needed to address the need for a better way to encrypt all email communications with a much easier workflow. The current solution deployed by Roche Bros. became a challenge for its user community and more costly than expected.
Solution: Trustifi Exceeding Roche Bros. Expectations!
Trustifi exceeded Roche Bros' expectations by delivering an easy way for end-users to send encrypted messages and a secure method for their suppliers to decrypt the email safely. With the same platform, Trustifi delivers exceptional anti-virus, anti-malware, and anti-phishing protection that is fully integrated with the email encryption solution and data loss prevention.
Customer Quote:
“I was delighted with Trustifi AI for secure email and compliance support. This next-generation email protection layer protects our organization by stopping malicious spam and phishing emails from reaching users.”
John Haddigan
Vice President of Information Technology at Roche Bros. Supermarkets
