Drive PCI DSS Compliance Across Analytic Workflows

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Any business that processes, transmits or stores cardholder data must comply with PCI DSS requirement to ensure that cardholder data is handled securely and responsibly during the process. The standard also applies to any organization that could impact the security of cardholder data.

Organizations that adopt cloud analytics solutions, like Databricks and Snowflake, to get the most value of their data and drive real-time insights, face the challenge to effectively integrate compliance into their data analytics practices.

With the new PCI DSS 4.0 requirements coming in March 2025, businesses face an increased imperative to adeptly manage the delicate balance between safeguarding credit card data and ensuring its effective utilization.

How can analytics workflows comply with PCI DSS?

Data Minimization

Limit the amount of cardholder data collected and retained to what is necessary for business purposes to reduce the risk exposure

Secure Data Collection and Storage

Ensure that data collected for analytics is encrypted and stored securely. Use tokenization or encryption to protect cardholder data at rest and in transit. Ensure that data processing systems are secure. This includes securing databases, servers, and applications involved in data analytics.

Data Masking

Mask cardholder data in analytics environments to protect sensitive information. This allows analysts to work with the data without exposing the full details of cardholder information.

Access Control and Authentication

Implement strong access control measures to restrict access to sensitive data. Use multi-factor authentication and ensure that access logs are monitored regularly.

Regular and automated logging, audits and Compliance Checks

Conduct regular audits to ensure compliance with PCI DSS and other regulations. Use automated tools to monitor compliance and detect potential security breaches. Implement logging and monitoring solutions to track access to cardholder data. Analyze logs regularly to detect and respond to security incidents.

How Fortanix can help?

Fortanix can help organizations comply with government and industry specific regulations in their data analytics efforts by providing a suite of security solutions designed to protect sensitive data. Fortanix offers robust data security solutions to ensure that cardholder data is encrypted both at rest and in transit.

Fortanix secures data collection for analytics, ensuring that cardholder data is encrypted and stored securely through robust encryption solutions at rest using strong encryption algorithms. Even if the storage medium is compromised, the data remains protected. Some of the key functionalities that Fortanix offers to secure the data during collection and storage are:

Transparent Database Encryption (TDE)

Fortanix TDE encrypts database files at the storage level without requiring changes to the application. This means that encryption and decryption are transparent to the end-users and applications interacting with the database. It ensures that encryption keys are stored securely and are accessible only to authorized users and applications. The solution is easy to deploy and can be integrated with various databases, including popular relational databases like Oracle, SQL Server, and MySQL, as well as NoSQL databases.

Application and ETL level Data Tokenization (FPE)

Fortanix offers Application and ETL level data tokenization using Format-Preserving Encryption (FPE). This solution is designed to secure sensitive data while maintaining its usability. The encrypted data retains the format of the original data which makes Analytics on this data seamless and secure. For example, a tokenized credit card number will look like a regular credit card number.

Fortanix’s data tokenization solution can be integrated directly into applications to tokenize sensitive data as it is created before it is even stored in the database or Datawarehouse. This can be useful for applications handling Personally Identifiable Information (PII), payment card information, or other sensitive data.

Data Masking

In addition to data tokenization, Fortanix can also provide data masking solutions. This allows sensitive data to be masked so that it can be used in non-production environments without exposing the actual data.

Virtual Machine (VM) Level Encryption

Fortanix provides VM Level Encryption solutions designed to protect data within virtual machines by encrypting the full disk. The solution can encrypt the entire virtual machine disk, ensuring that all data stored within the VM is protected. This includes the operating system, applications, and data files.

Access Management and Audit logs

Fortanix provides comprehensive access management and audit logging capabilities to ensure secure and compliant data operations.

LDAP Integration

Fortanix supports integration with LDAP for centralized management of user credentials and access controls. By integrating with LDAP, Fortanix enables single sign-on capabilities, allowing users to authenticate using their existing LDAP credentials. This simplifies the authentication process and enhances security by leveraging established directory services. LDAP integration allows for granular access control based on user roles and group memberships defined in the directory. Administrators can easily manage who has access to specific resources and operations within the Fortanix platform.

Application-Based Authentication

Fortanix provides easy integrations APIs for tokenization and detokenization operations. Applications can authenticate these APIs using secure credentials such as API keys or OAuth tokens. By having different applications and API credentials, Fortanix supports role-based access control, allowing administrators to define roles and permissions for different applications. This ensures that applications only have access to the data and operations they are authorized to perform.

Built-In Logs for User Activity and Operations

Fortanix logs all user activities, including login attempts, configuration changes, and data access operations. These logs provide a detailed audit trail of who did what and when.
All operations performed within the Fortanix platform, such as encryption, decryption, data tokenization, and key management, are logged. This helps in tracking and auditing the use of sensitive data and cryptographic keys.
Administrators can generate audit reports from these logs to monitor compliance with security policies and regulatory requirements. These reports can be used for internal audits and external compliance checks.
Fortanix supports integration with Syslog, a standard protocol for message logging. This allows Fortanix logs to be forwarded to centralized logging servers for aggregation and analysis. By integrating with Syslog, Fortanix logs can be ingested by SIEM systems. This enables advanced security monitoring, correlation, and alerting based on the log data.

Summary

By integrating PCI DSS compliance requirements into data analytics practices, businesses can leverage the full potential of the data while maintaining the highest standards of data security. By leveraging Fortanix’s data security solutions, organizations can confidently engage in data analytics while ensuring that they meet stringent regulatory requirements, thus protecting sensitive data from breaches and unauthorized access. The robust security and rich capabilities of the Fortanix platform can also help organizations get ready for the new PCI DSS 4.0 requirements.