PCI DSS V4 Compliance Made Easier: The Client-Side Protection Advantage

PCI DSS, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is a global safeguard for sensitive payment card information. It’s a robust set of rules ensuring data security from storage to transmission. PCI DSS V4 goes beyond mere compliance; it serves as the foundation for secure digital transactions, protecting businesses, customers, and the global payment system.

As a result, by complying to PCI-DSS organizations can:

PCI DSS V4.0, released in March 2022, introduces new and enhanced security requirements to address the evolving threat landscape and protect cardholder data from emerging cyberattacks. In this blog, I’ll zoom in on two important changes: the client-side security requirements outlined in sections 6.4.3 and 11.6.1.

New PCI DSS Requirements: A Closer Look

Let’s begin with section 6.4.3, which according to the PCI DSS council, highlights the risk of scripts on payment pages being altered without the company’s awareness, potentially allowing the loading of additional scripts. These seemingly harmless scripts can be exploited by attackers to compromise cardholder data. To mitigate this risk, it is crucial to thoroughly understand the function of each script, permit only authorized scripts, and employ safeguards to prevent tampering. This proactive approach reduces the likelihood of unauthorized activities, such as card data theft.

Therefore, organizations are required to establish a systematic process overseen by security teams. This process ensures careful control and tracking of all scripts operating on payment pages within users’ browsers. A documented inventory of scripts, accompanied by explanations of their necessity, must be maintained. Security teams play a critical role in verifying script authorization, confirming integrity, and implementing measures to hinder harmful scripts, safeguarding cardholder information.

Having discussed the details of section 6.4.3, let’s now shift our focus to the next section 11.6.1. As specified by the PCI DSS council, Modern web pages often fetch content, like JavaScript, from various places, making traditional monitoring challenging. Detection of changes or malicious activity is most effective in the end-user browser. By comparing the current HTTP header and payment page content with known versions, unauthorized changes, potentially signaling a skimming attack, can be identified. The council emphasizes that various mechanisms, such as Content Security Policy violations, external monitoring, tamper-resistant scripts, and proxies, can be employed for alerting and blocking potential threats.

Therefore section 11.6.1 determines that organizations are required to enhance security and establish a system to identify unauthorized alterations to the HTTP headers and content of payment pages in the end-user browser. This system assesses these components either at least once every seven days or according to the frequency defined in the entity’s targeted risk analysis, as required for this purpose.

While these requirements are currently considered best practices, they will become mandatory as of March 31, 2025. At that point, they will be considered in all PCI DSS assessments.

Moving Forward: How Radware’s Client-Side Protection Can Elevate Your Security Strategy

PCI DSS 4.0 prioritizes safeguarding against client-side risks such as Magecart and formjacking and it calls for providing robust defense against these modern threats to prevent data breaches and financial losses. Adhering to PCI DSS standards not only ensures security against contemporary risks but also maintains the smooth operation of online transactions and customer interactions, minimizing disruptions to business functions.

Non-compliance with PCI DSS standards carries significant consequences, including substantial fines, potential damage to reputation, and legal consequences. It emphasizes the critical importance of aligning with these standards to mitigate risks and safeguard the integrity of your business.

Radware’s client-side protection offers a strong defense against cyber threats like Magecart, Formjacking, and DOM-based XSS attacks. It guards against unauthorized disclosure of sensitive personal information, encompassing credit card numbers, names, expiration dates, and other private data. This protection enables continuous discovery by actively monitoring all services executed on user browsers, through detailed tracking of the outgoing requests to each and every service.

With a sophisticated threat level assessment in place, Radware evaluates scripts and URLs based on malicious indicators. For an immediate response, it allows out-of-the-box automatic blocking of newly discovered services based on threat level assessment.

Client-side protection provides security teams with a user-friendly interface to swiftly block suspicious or unknown services at the click of a button. Simultaneously, it enables continuous monitoring of known, legitimate, and trusted services to protect against compromise. The system is equipped to surgically block malicious outbound requests to legitimate services, ensuring the seamless use of vital functions to ensure preserving the overall user experience. To allow clear visibility into the dynamic digital environment, Client-Side protection supports real-time notifications for new discoveries of scripts and outbound requests to third party domains, as well as script hash changes. This comprehensive solution goes beyond mere compliance, actively addressing cybersecurity challenges.

In this blog, we zoomed in on two important changes of the PCI DSS v4 – sections 6.4.3 and 11.6.1. We are currently working on enhancements precisely designed to address those specific needs and to streamline the tasks of security teams along with continuous advancement of our solution. Take advantage of a free trial of Radware’s client-side protection solution by clicking here.