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Compliance training can seem daunting for program administrators, it's crucial, and the requirements can be complex.
At Security Journey, we come across many customers that need to meet PCI DSS Compliance. That's why we create comprehensive, secure coding training with extensive content on PCI compliance topics.
In this article, we'll review what PCI DSS is and 6 steps your organization can take to successfully deploy and evaluate your PCI DSS training.
What is PCI DSS?
PCI DSS is an acronym for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. These rules went into effect in 2006, intending to ensure that credit card data is secured uniformly. The five major credit card companies – Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, and JCB – set up the PCI Security Standards Council to manage and administer PCI DSS.
While every merchant accepting credit card transactions must be PCI compliant, there are different merchant levels and PCI requirements depending on your annual transaction volume.
PCI assessments are conducted by qualified security assessors (QSA) or internal security assessors (ISA) to determine an organization's compliance with the PCI DSS. They are crucial for protecting payment card data and preventing fraud. Organizations that fail to comply with PCI DSS may be subject to fines, legal liabilities, and other consequences.
Read More: Top PCI Compliance Tips
How To Start and Deploy PCI DSS Awareness Training
By following these steps, an organization can quickly get started on PCI DSS awareness training and ensure its employees can securely handle payment card information.
Determine The Scope of the Training
Identify the individuals within the organization who handle payment card information, such as employees who process payments, customer service representatives who access cardholder data, and IT staff who manage the network and systems, and developers that write code
These employees should complete compliance training and receive a certification as proof of completion. And since compliance is not a set-it-and-forget-it, these employees must be part of a continuous training program.
Identify The Training Needs
Based on the training scope, identify each group's training needs. For example, employees who process payments may need to understand how to handle card data securely, while developers should understand to avoid creating vulnerabilities in code. By identifying and tracking your organization's training needs, you can easily share those needs with future vendors to ensure you have access to the training you need.
Develop Training Materials
After you identify your training needs, it’s time to develop your training materials. The training materials can be in the form of videos, presentations, or online courses.
While large organizations may have the capacity and expertise to develop training materials in-house, most organizations will have more success by finding a trusted vendor, like Security Journey, to provide expertly-made training programs that include the content your learners need.
Training vendors are often specialists in their field, with years of experience in identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities in various types of applications. They are likely to have a deeper understanding of current threats, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures and have the capacity to not only stay on top of the latest training needs, but also develop a comprehensive curriculum that covers a wide range of topics in a shorter amount of time.
Deliver The Training
Deliver the training to the identified groups using the chosen delivery method. The training can be delivered in person, online, or combined.
By working with a vendor for online PCI compliance training, you can access multiple learning modalities and ways to deliver training to your learners. From interactive learning paths to group tournaments, these engaging features can make this step easy for your program administrator.
Assess The Effectiveness of the Training
After the training has been delivered, assess the effectiveness of the training by testing the knowledge of the individuals who received the training. This can be done through quizzes, surveys, or other forms of assessment.
At Security Journey, our training effectiveness is measured through assessments and learning swing to quantifiably identify how effective the training is for learners.
Review And Update the Training
Review the training periodically and update it as necessary to ensure it remains relevant and effective. As new vulnerabilities and threats are discovered, keeping your team up-to-date and ready to protect your customers is essential.
Are You Ready For Your First Step To Success?
PCI compliance can seem like an expensive, time-consuming process. Yet the cost of non-compliance in terms of fines and penalties and, even more damaging, the tangible and intangible cost of a data breach to your organization is much higher.
Offering your development teams PCI training online, in a programmatic approach with bite-size lessons to speed up knowledge gain, is one way to streamline upskilling on application security. In addition, it helps learners increase their knowledge in a manageable way while still keeping up with their day-to-day responsibilities.
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Compliance & Regulations