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The Hidden Gaps in PCI Compliance

Using a PCI-compliant platform does not 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 eliminate the merchants liability! It’s a common misconception and one that continues to expose businesses to significant risk. While using a platform that is PCI-compliant significantly reduces exposure, merchants actually still retain responsibility for the parts of the payment environment they control.

This is because the PCI DSS directives apply to any system that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data, regardless of whether it sits within a third-party platform or the merchant’s own infrastructure.

In practice, this means compliance obligations extend across the entire lifecycle of payment data. From the point a card is entered through to how that data is processed, transmitted, and stored, each stage introduces different risks and corresponding responsibilities.

Typically, this includes three distinct phases of the data lifecycle:

◾ Data at rest: Stored cardholder data, whether in backups, logs, or databases etc. These must be encrypted and access strictly controlled.

◾ Data in transit: Data exchanged between merchant systems, PSPs, and other endpoints must be secured with strong encryption protocols.

◾ Data in use: Any live transaction data must be protected during real-time processing, including in-memory encryption, role-based access, and tokenisation.

What’s increasingly critical to recognise is that today’s breaches rarely involve payment data alone. In many cases, they also expose personally identifiable information (PII) such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and billing details. When combined with card data, this creates a far broader risk surface, enabling identity theft, synthetic identity fraud, account takeover, and targeted phishing attacks etc… all of which amplify both the scope and severity of a breach.

PCI DSS is a shared responsibility model, and the merchant’s role is equally critical, as today’s fraud is engineered to exploit even the smallest vulnerabilities across internal systems, third-party services, and integration points.

The real question merchant should ask themselves isn’t just whether their payment provider is compliant, but whether their broader payment environment is secure by design?

#paymentexperts, any perspectives to share🎤?

#PCICompliance #FraudPrevention #PII

𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒘𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆? 𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘢𝘺𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴.

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