PCI compliance is a complicated matter. There are a number of different steps to meet and validate your achievement of the PCI DSS standard. In this guide, we’ll break down the steps in PCI compliance testing, the different types of PCI compliance tests, and how much it costs to complete this process.

Network segmentation is a practice that can dramatically lower the time, effort and cost of a PCI DSS assessment. Not only is it an industry best practice for security cardholder data, but it’s also an effective way of controlling the annual commitment of meeting your PCI compliance requirements. Here’s how network segmentation works, as well as some key best practices for using network segmentation to reduce the scope of your PCI assessment.

PCI compliance applies to businesses of all sizes: In fact, the PCI Council sets compliance standards according to how many card-based transactions a business handles each year. There are four merchant levels are Small businesses usually fall under level four. If you’re not sure what level your business falls into, your point-of-sale (POS) reports may be able to tell you.

At Nightfall, our mission is to discover and secure sensitive data in every cloud application through a cloud-native, accurate, and performant platform. Since 2019, Nightfall has partnered with some of the world’s most innovative organizations to proactively eliminate data security risks across a fleet of SaaS applications via our native integrations for Slack, Atlassian Jira, Confluence, Google Drive, and GitHub.

We’re excited to announce that Nightfall is partnering with Virtru, a renowned leader in email and SaaS encryption, to provide customers with an encryption solution for securing PHI in Gmail and Google Drive. Combined with our existing Google Drive data loss prevention (DLP) integration, this new solution will provide fully integrated compliance and security coverage for Google Workspace.

HIPAA requires covered entities and business associates to secure protected health information (PHI). Failing to do so can result in steep fines and penalties. Some PHI breaches, however, are out of the organization’s control. Determined hackers can expose PHI, and employees can make mistakes — they’re only human, Despite training, rigorous security protocols, and constant monitoring, data breaches can happen.

HIPAA compliance requires covered entities and business associates to secure protected health information. Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, health plan beneficiary numbers, account numbers, and names of patients, relatives, or employers all must be secured from unauthorized access. The penalties and fines for HIPAA violations can be steep — in some instances reaching millions of dollars. And, HIPAA isn’t prescriptive about what it takes to be in compliance.

Those who work in the healthcare industry know: HIPAA compliance is often fiercely enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services, and penalties can be steep. “Each covered entity is required to implement safeguards to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of PHI. These safeguards will vary depending on the size of the covered entity and the nature of healthcare it provides, but the penalties for failing to safeguard the integrity of PHI can be extremely high.

HIPAA’s regulations refer to two parties: a covered entity and a business associate. These groups are required to achieve PHI compliance. Specifically, this means these groups are liable for protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of personal health information.

The Nightfall blog is a knowledgebase for cybersecurity professionals with news and insights from the world of cloud security. Each week, we’re publishing new content to help you stay up-to-date on cybersecurity topics and to prepare you for the issues and threats that occur every day on the job.