IT Security Expert Blog

Achieving PCI DSS Compliant Firewalls within a Small Business

The most important and integral part of any data security begins with having firewalls installed in the environment. Not just that, installing firewalls is an essential requirement of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). However, simply installing a firewall on the network perimeter will not make your organization PCI DSS compliant.

PCI DSS draws out specific requirements pertinent to firewalls under requirement 1 and its sub-requirements on how firewalls should be installed, updated, maintained along with other firewall rules. Elaborating more on this, we have explained in this article basic PCI DSS firewall requirements, and the need for small businesses to install firewalls. But before getting into the details of it, let us first understand the meaning of a PCI DSS compliant firewall.

What is a PCI DSS Compliant Firewall?

Firewalls are used to segment or isolate networks and are an essential component to limit cyber threats and protect internal networks from the internet and untrusted networks. In a merchant’s point-of-sale environments (POS), a firewall’s purpose to restrict only specific permitted network traffic into and out of the POS network environment.

However, if misconfigured and unmaintained, a firewall could fail to adequately protect networks and IT systems that process payment cards. The PCI Security Standards Council have provided requirements and Achieving PCI DSS Compliant Firewalls within a Small Business