PCI Requirement 10.2.1 – All Individual User Accesses to Cardholder Data

by Randy Bartels / December 20, 2022

 Identifying Which Accounts Have Been Compromised PCI Requirement 10.2.1 requires that audit trails reconstruct all individual user accesses to cardholder data. What is the purpose of PCI Requirement 10.2.1? The PCI DSS guidance explains, “Malicious individuals could obtain knowledge of a user account with access to systems in the CDE, or they could create a new, unauthorized account in order to access cardholder data. A record of all individual…

PCI Requirement 10.2 – Implement Automated Audit Trails for all System Components to Reconstruct the Events

by Randy Bartels / December 20, 2022

 What Do I Log? Because PCI Requirement 10 requires that logging mechanisms be enabled, we often hear clients ask, “What do I log?” The PCI DSS gives us specific insight into which events need to be logged so that audit trails can provide a history to help identify and trace malicious activities. PCI Requirement 10.2 requires that organizations implement automated audit trails for all system components to reconstruct the…

PCI Requirement 10.1 – Implement Audit Trails to Link All Access to System Components to Each Individual User

by Randy Bartels / December 19, 2022

 Audit Trails PCI Requirement 10.1 is a pretty straightforward requirement. It states, “Implement audit trails to link all access to system components to each individual user.” This means that everything in scope should have logging enabled to allow organizations to track suspicious activity back to a specific user. To verify compliance with PCI Requirement 10.1, an auditor will observe and interview a system administrator to see that audit trails…

PCI Requirement 10 – Track and Monitor all Access to Network Resources and Cardholder Data

by Randy Bartels / May 31, 2023

 Importance of Logging and Tracking If data was compromised at your organization, how would you determine the cause? PCI Requirement 10 focuses on a critical aspect of data protection: logging and tracking. Implementing logging mechanisms at your organization gives you the ability to track user activities, which is crucial in preventing, detecting, and minimizing the consequences of a data breach. Without logging and tracking, it’s even more difficult to…

Cloud Security: Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

by Sarah Harvey / July 12, 2023

Myths about the Cloud and BC/DR Plans When it comes to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans for cloud environments, we often hear this feedback: “I’m in the cloud so I don’t have to worry about Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans because my cloud provider does those for me.” “We don’t need to test our Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans, we’ve thought it all through.” “Our cloud service…