It’s perhaps no surprise that when somebody comes up with a great fix in life, few people actually use it—many a Scrub Daddy, Squatty Potty, and Rapid Ramen Cooker stay sealed and unopened, despite being upgrades to their predecessors. In the security space, better versions of products are released all the time, at high speeds,…
This article is meant to call out some of the items some companies or people might not understand about the ASV program. Most of the content is directly from the program guide that can be found on the PCI Councils website. This is in no way a full description of the program guide or a…
With the development of PCI DSS v4 most of the changes are in the Report on Compliance (ROC) but there are also updates to the SAQ’s to align with the new standards. Here are some of the highlights and clarifications for the new SAQs. The responsibilities for merchants for which form they need to fill…
I get asked all the time what periodic or significant change means in PCI. Here is a breakdown of what the PCI DSS means for each. Timeframes in PCI DSS Descriptions and Examples Daily Every day of the year (not only on business days). Weekly At least once every seven days. Monthly At least once …
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) issued version 4.0 of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) on March 31, 2022. The PCI DSS is a global standard that establishes a baseline of technical and operational standards for protecting account data. PCI DSS v4.0 replaces PCI DSS version 3.2.1 to address emerging threats and…
Apple has released an urgent update to address a critical zero-day vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild. The vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2021-30807 and affects iOS, iPadOS, and macOS devices. This vulnerability exists due to a memory corruption issue in the IOMobileFrameBuffer component, a kernel extension for managing the screen framebuffer. It allows…
In our constantly connected world, staying focused can feel like a superpower. Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” dives into the concept of deep work: the ability to concentrate without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks. Newport argues that deep work is a critical skill for achieving professional success and personal fulfillment in today’s information overload. Summary The…
Before I begin I want to clarify one important item, only your processor(s), acquiring bank(s), and/or card brand(s) can give you a definitive answer regarding your merchant level. I originally published this article in 2020 but I have updated with the latest level information and included UnionPay. Compliance with PCI DSS is crucial for any…
With so many people working remotely now I thought I would share some more tips I have learned by trial and error. I have used Zoom for many years now and below are some tips you might want to consider when having meeting. Enable Waiting Rooms: Control who can join the meeting. Users wait in a virtual…
In today’s dynamic, multi-vendor network environments, usually having tens or hundreds of firewalls running thousands of rules, a manual security audit was performed which now borders on the impossible. Firewall administrators must rely on their own experience and skills to manually perform the audit process to decide if a given firewall rule should or should…
