The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), the standards body that oversees the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), released the PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines Information Supplement on Thursday.
Designed to help organizations that processes credit cards better understand compliance when using cloud technology, the resource can be used to help select solutions and third-party cloud providers that will help them secure their payment data and support PCI DSS compliance.
More than 100 organizations representing banks, merchants, security assessors and technology vendors collaborated on the guidance, the council said.
According to the council, The PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines Information Supplement builds on the work of the 2011 Virtualization Special Interest Group (SIG), and aims to provide guidance around the following primary areas and objectives:
• Cloud Overview – provides explanation of common deployment and service models for cloud environments, including how implementations may vary within the different types.
• Cloud Provider/Cloud Customer Relationships– outlines different roles and responsibilities across the different cloud models and guidance on how to determine and document these responsibilities.
• PCI DSS Considerations – provides guidance and examples to help determine responsibilities for individual PCI DSS requirements, and includes segmentation and scoping considerations.
• PCI DSS Compliance Challenges– describes some of the challenges associated with validating PCI DSS compliance in a cloud environment.
• Additional Security Considerations – explores a number of business and technical security considerations for the use of cloud technologies.
The document also includes a number of appendices to address specific PCI DSS requirements and implementation scenarios, including: additional considerations to help determine PCI DSS responsibilities across different cloud service models; sample system inventory for cloud computing environments; sample matrix for documenting how PCI DSS responsibilities are assigned between cloud provider and client; and a starting set of questions that can help in determining how PCI DSS requirements can be met in a particular cloud environment.
The supplement is available here.
