Let’s be real for a second – the report on compliance is mandatory for all level 1 merchants and any merchant regardless of level that is required to provide a report on compliance by either their acquirer or card brand. Most level 1 merchants fall out of compliance shortly after the ink is dry on their most recent report. Why? Because they don’t have a sustainability program. The RoC is treated like a bad surprise every year and that creates wasted effort, lost money, and burned out staff.

Best Practice: Developers and system administrators request changes to firewall rule sets all the time. Whether it’s to do work on system components or test system components, these changes can make a mess out of your rule sets. It’s so easy for someone to unintentionally request an “any” rule which is prohibited in the cardholder data environment. Our best advice is to insert your ISA or someone on the compliance team into the firewall rule change review.