PCI DSS
What it is — The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security requirements for organizations that handle branded credit cards. Published by the PCI Security Standards Council , the current version is PCI DSS v4.0.1. Compliance is mandatory for any organization that stores, processes, or transmits cardholder data.
Appsec relevance — PCI DSS Requirements 6 and 11 directly mandate application security testing. Requirement 6 addresses secure development and vulnerability management for payment applications. Requirement 11 mandates regular vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.
How Detectify Supports PCI DSS v4.0
| Requirement | What it requires | Detectify Capability | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Req 6.3.1 | Identify and catalogue security vulnerabilities using industry-recognized sources | Application Scanning + API Scanning provide continuous vulnerability identification across multiple CWEs, with Alfred AI accelerating test coverage for newly disclosed CVEs | Full |
| Req 6.3.3 | Address identified vulnerabilities according to risk ranking, with critical and high addressed first | CVSS-based severity scoring with Critical/High/Medium/Low classification, plus OWASP Top 10 categorization | Full |
| Req 6.4.1 | Protect public-facing web applications against known attacks by detecting vulnerabilities regularly | Application Scanning with payload-based validation detects exploitable vulnerabilities in public-facing web applications | Full |
| Req 6.4.2 | Deploy an automated technical solution that continuously detects and prevents web-based attacks | Scheduled and API-triggered scanning provides the automated technical solution this requirement specifies | Full |
| Req 11.3.1 | Perform internal vulnerability scans at least once every three months and after any significant change | Internal Scanning via on-premises agent runs the full scanning engine against internal applications | Full |
| Req 11.3.1.2 | Perform internal vulnerability scans via authenticated scanning, with sufficient privileges for systems that accept credentials | Internal Scanning supports authenticated scanning with credentials for deeper vulnerability coverage | Full |
| Req 11.3.2 | Perform external vulnerability scans at least quarterly by a PCI SSC Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV), with vulnerabilities resolved and rescans performed as needed | PCI ASV scanning via Clonesystems produces the formal Approved Scanning Vendor report this requirement mandates | Full |
What Detectify Covers
Detectify addresses the core application security and vulnerability scanning requirements of PCI DSS. The PCI ASV scanning capability (via Clonesystems) directly satisfies Requirement 11.3.1.2 with a formal ASV report. Application Scanning and API Scanning address Requirement 6’s mandate for identifying and managing application-level vulnerabilities. Internal Scanning satisfies the quarterly internal scan requirement (11.3.1).
Requirements related to network security (IDS/IPS), penetration testing, secure development processes, and file integrity monitoring are outside Detectify’s scope.
Complementary Tools You May Need
- Penetration testing services — For Req 11.4.6–11.4.7 (annual penetration testing)
- Network IDS/IPS — For Req 11.4 (intrusion detection and prevention)
- File integrity monitoring (FIM) — For Req 11.6.1
- Secure SDLC tools — For Req 6.2.3 (development process governance)
- SAST — For code-level vulnerability analysis in custom payment applications
- WAF — As an alternative or supplement to DAST for Req 6.4.2