What it Takes to be a PCI-Qualified

The purpose of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI DSS, is to protect the customer account data of organizations. The main PCI Standard objectives for organizations include: protecting cardholder data, maintaining security within the network, putting forth strong control measures, maintaining the information security policy and best practices, and monitoring/testing networks regularly.

For an individual working in security to become PCI-qualified, the first thing he will need to do is find a security company that is QSA certified by the PCI Security Standard Council. He must then apply for sponsorship, as all training attendees of the PCI Council must be full time employees of a Validated QSA company.

The applicant must have either five years of IT security experience or have obtained a CISSP, CISA or, CISM Certificate. People who are currently functioning as compliance officers may find the PCI-OSA role to be ideal. In order to become qualified and knowledgeable, the individual will be learning about how the credit card industry works. He will need to have a strong background in information security with a good amount of experience in different security and IT network configurations, databases and servers, and applications/platforms. Having auditing knowledge will also help these individuals in performing the necessary assessments. Additionally, these individuals should be able to work well with other people and interact well with clients, as this is also a significant part of the role that they would be playing once they are in the position.

Once one has met all of the qualifications and gone through the necessary training, he will be able to experience the many benefits that the PCI-QSA role has to offer, such as more flexibility on the job, an increased number of leadership opportunities, and an increased number of career opportunities within the information security field.

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