PCI DSS case study: Impact in network design and security

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of twelve security requirements applicable to all institutions and systems handling, storing or transmitting cardholder information. It was created by the main card brands in a united effort to respond to the increasing number of attacks and data breaches cases targeted and linked to card and cardholder data. The standard considers points such as policies design, data security, network architecture, software design, application security, transmission encryption requirements and so on. Being compliant with the standard can be both expensive and traumatic for any business willing to do it. This research analyzes the impact that this compliance achievement process can have on an enterprise. This work is focused on the networking infrastructure and security and application security in general. This is a case study based on a real situation, where real current procedures and implementations were evaluated against the standard requirements regarding networking design, security and applications security. This will provide a benchmark of the situation towards getting the compliance validation in the company subject of this case study.