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PCI DSS Compliance Consultants Who Get You Ready for the Assessor
Every PCI DSS requirement has been mandatory since March 31, 2025, including the 51 that were best practice until then. Most mid-market merchants and service providers have not caught up on the new ones: payment page script controls, MFA into the cardholder data environment, and targeted risk analyses.
Cloudskope maps where your card data actually lives, finds the gaps against v4.0.1, fixes what can be fixed, runs the testing the standard requires, and hands your assessor an evidence package that holds up. When a Report on Compliance is required, an independent Qualified Security Assessor performs the assessment. We get you ready for it.
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Where PCI Programs Fail Under Assessment
Most PCI findings are not exotic.
They come from scope nobody mapped, controls nobody rechecked after v4.0, and evidence nobody can produce on the day of fieldwork.
Scope That Is Bigger Than You Think
Card data turns up in support tools, call recordings, logs and old integrations. We trace where it actually flows, so your SAQ type and assessment scope match reality.
Flat Networks
Without tested segmentation, every connected system is in scope. We confirm what separates the cardholder data environment from everything else, and we test it.
Payment Page Scripts
Attackers skim cards by changing the scripts on checkout pages. v4.0.1 expects an inventory of every script on the payment pages you control, a reason for each, and detection of unauthorized changes.
MFA Gaps Into the Cardholder Environment
MFA at the VPN is no longer enough. Access into the cardholder data environment needs it everywhere, including admin consoles and cloud tenants such as Microsoft 365 and Azure.
Missing Targeted Risk Analyses
Where the standard lets you set a control's frequency, you need a documented targeted risk analysis behind it. Assessors ask for them, and many programs have none.
Evidence That Does Not Exist
Logs, review records, training completion, scan results, change approvals. We build the evidence trail before fieldwork, so the assessment measures your controls, not your filing.
What Our PCI DSS Consulting Covers
One team from scoping to sign-off: consulting, audit preparation, testing and ongoing compliance.
The goal is not a longer gap list. It is a smaller scope, fewer findings, and an assessment you pass on the evidence.
Scoping & Segmentation Review
Find every place card data lives, then shrink it.
Card data flows across every payment channel, tokenization and outsourced processors, connected systems, and network segmentation.
Scope drives your SAQ type, your assessment cost and your breach exposure. Most scope reductions pay for the engagement.
Cardholder Data Flow Diagram
Scope Inventory
Segmentation Findings
Scope Reduction Options
PCI DSS v4.0.1 Gap Assessment
Every applicable requirement, checked against evidence.
All 12 requirements at your validation level, the 51 requirements that became mandatory in 2025, compensating controls, and the policies and procedures behind them.
Gaps you find cost less than gaps your assessor finds.
Requirement-by-Requirement Gap Register
Severity and Effort Ranking
Compensating Control Review
Remediation Roadmap
SAQ Selection & Completion Support
The right questionnaire, answered with proof.
Payment channels, processor setups, eligibility for each SAQ type, and the Attestation of Compliance your officer will sign.
The wrong SAQ either overstates your burden or understates your risk, and the executive who signs the attestation owns every answer.
SAQ Determination Memo
Evidence for Each Answer
Attestation of Compliance Draft
Acquirer-Ready Package
PCI Audit Preparation
Arrive at fieldwork ready.
Evidence completeness for each requirement, documentation, prior findings, and how ready your control owners are for assessor interviews.
Fixing gaps before fieldwork costs less than fixing them under a deadline, and it keeps assessor hours down. Your QSA performs the assessment and issues the Report on Compliance; we stay with you through it.
Evidence Package Mapped to Requirements
Control Owner Preparation
Mock Assessment Walkthrough
Open-Item Tracker for Fieldwork
PCI Penetration Testing
The testing the standard requires, done by hand.
External and internal penetration tests under Requirement 11.4, segmentation testing, application testing of payment flows, and retesting after fixes.
v4.0.1 requires annual internal and external penetration testing, plus segmentation testing where segmentation reduces scope. A vulnerability scan does not satisfy it.
External and Internal Findings
Segmentation Test Results
Attack Path Narrative
Retest Confirmation
Remediation & Ongoing Compliance
Fix the gaps and keep them closed.
Remediation sequencing, MFA and logging fixes, Microsoft 365 and Azure controls, quarterly obligations, and the annual scope confirmation under Requirement 12.5.2.
PCI is a year-round obligation. Most failures happen between assessments, not during them.
Done-for-You Remediation
Quarterly Compliance Calendar
Fix Validation and Retest
vCISO Oversight
Beyond the Checklist
Passing an assessment and being secure are not the same thing.
Target passed a PCI assessment in 2013, weeks before its breach. We work toward both.
Smaller Scope
Less to assess, less to protect, and a lower bill from your assessor.
Fewer Surprises in Fieldwork
Gaps are found and closed before the assessor arrives.
Proof Behind Every Answer
Every response is backed by evidence the signing officer can stand behind.
Controls That Stop Attackers
We test whether controls work against a real attacker, not only whether they exist on paper.
What Happens Next
Every engagement is scoped to your payment channels, validation level and deadline.
We find what matters, fix it, and keep it fixed.
A Simple Path From Scoping to Sign-Off
Discover
We map your payment channels and card data flows and confirm your validation level.
Assess
We check every applicable requirement and run the testing v4.0.1 requires.
Remediate
We fix the gaps with your team and validate each fix.
Protect
Where needed, Cloudskope stays engaged through vCISO and managed detection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers on scope, assessors, testing and what happens after the gap assessment.
Know Your Scope. Close the Gaps.
Walk Into the Assessment Ready.
If your PCI program has not been rechecked since v4.0, or your SAQ was chosen years ago and never revisited, start with scope.
It decides everything else.