USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation
SIMPLIFY PCI COMPLIANCE
WITH NETWORK SEGMENTATION
SPOTLIGHTS
Industry
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Use Case
Simplify PCI Compliance with
Network Segmentation
PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data
Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a
proprietary information security
standard for organizations that handle
branded credit cards from the major
card schemes, including Visa,
MasterCard, American Express,
Discover and JCB.
Business Benefits
• Lower risk exposure to the
cardholder data environment
(CDE) to malware and threats that
propagate through network
• Decreased risk due to improved
compliance with PCI DSS
o Brand Damage
o Litigation
o Fines from credit card
institutions and banks
Operational Benefits
• Reporting simplifies PCI audit
process by demonstrating
compliance
• Improved visibility and control over
network traffic into/out of CDE
zone
Technical Benefits
• Simplified security architecture
• Multiple integration options
facilitate ease of deployment into
any environment
Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case
Business Drivers
Organizations that allow their customers to pay with credit cards must meet or exceed
PCI DSS requirements. If the requirements are deemed unmet during an audit or post-
breach, credit card institutions may levy fines as a penalty for noncompliance and
propose a timeline of increasing fines.
Cardholder breaches can result in the following types of losses for a merchant:
• $50-$90 fine per cardholder data compromised.
• Suspension of credit card acceptance by a merchant’s credit card account provider.
• Loss of reputation with customers, suppliers and partners.
• Possible civil litigation from breached customers.
• Loss of customer trust, which affects future sales.
Business Problem
Establishing, maintaining and demonstrating compliance with the PCI DSS is a necessity
for “… all entities involved in payment card processing – including merchants, processors,
acquirers, issuers, and service providers, as well as all other entities that store, process
or transmit cardholder data (CHD) and/or sensitive authentication data (SAD).”1 With
approximately three hundred individual requirements to address, organizations subject
to the standard have their work cut out for them.
With global losses from payment card fraud exceeding $21.8 billion in 2015, the need
for the PCI DSS has never been more apparent.2 According to a poll in The Wall Street
Journal, 45 percent of Americans say they or a household member had been notified
by a card issuer, financial institution or retailer that their credit card information had
possibly been stolen as part of a data breach.3
Offsetting the value of the PCI security standards, however, are a handful of related
challenges. These include the substantial amount of effort and investment required to
achieve compliance in the first place, along with the unfortunate reality that being
compliant does not necessarily translate into an organization being adequately defended
against advanced cyberattacks.
Substantial Effort Required
For all system components included in or connected to the Cardholder Data Environment,
organizations must comply with more than three hundred requirements. It is in every
organization’s best interest, therefore, to take advantage of network segmentation
provisions stated in the PCI DSS to effectively isolate their CDE and thereby decrease
the amount of infrastructure that is considered in scope. Doing so not only decreases
the cost and complexity of PCI compliance in several predictable ways but also has the
potential to deliver additional operational and security benefits. For example, when
armed with an appropriate solution, organizations can use network segmentation to:
• Reduce both the number of system components that must be brought into
compliance in the first place and any derivative impact doing so might have
(such as the need to re-architect portions of the network or redesign certain
applications and systems).
1. https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/PCI_DSS_v3-1.pdf
2. Nilson Report, October 2016
3. Source: Poll Shows Broad Impact of Cyberattacks, Wall Street Journal December 2014
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USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

• Reduce the number of system components that must be maintained in compliance, both on a regular basis and whenever
the PCI requirements are updated.
• Reduce the number of system components and processes that must be periodically audited to demonstrate compliance.
• Reduce and simplify management of the policies, access control and threat prevention rules that apply to the CDE.
• Reduce troubleshooting and forensic analysis effort by narrowing the scope of related investigations.
• Greatly improve the organization’s ability to contain and limit the spread of threats.

Traditional Approaches
A flat network casts a wide scope of compliance. Organizations that do not to isolate their PCI devices, such as point-of-sale devices,
credit card-processing workstations and servers, typically face more challenges during their periodic PCI assessments compared to
those that segment PCI devices. Any network segment that processes or transmits unencrypted credit card information must meet
all PCI DSS requirements. In a flat, unsegmented network, the entire network is in scope for the PCI DSS.
VLANS were designed for traffic management, not security. Your Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) will likely agree that VLANs and
ACLs do not provide the necessary security controls to meet PCI requirements and are extremely difficult to manage at enterprise
scale. VLANs were designed for traffic management and, alone, are not capable of enforcing the control of privileged information.
Alternative security options, like legacy port-based firewalls, also fail in this regard because they are indiscriminate about the traffic
that’s allowed through and do not safely enable the actions of the users for a segment. For example, there is no way to determine
which applications are being used, which data is being accessed, or if specific users are allowed to be in a particular segment in the
first place.
It is not sufficient to merely meet PCI requirements. By its own admission, the PCI DSS provides “a baseline of technical and operational
requirements” for protecting cardholder data. Not only do the specified countermeasures represent a minimum standard of due care,
but also – as a result of the now three-year period between revisions – they often lag behind significant changes to the technology
and threat landscapes.
One self-acknowledged example of this situation is provided by the requirement to “deploy anti-virus software on all systems commonly
affected by malicious software (particularly personal computers and servers)” in PCI DSS section 5.1. In this case, the DSS explicitly
mentions the consideration of “additional anti-malware solutions … as a supplement to the anti-virus software” – presumably in
recognition of the poor track record such software has of stopping modern, polymorphic malware and zero-day exploits.
A second example comes from the requirement to “implement stateful inspection” technology as part of the solution to “prohibit direct
public access between the internet and any system component in the cardholder data environment” in PCI DSS section 1.3.6.
Commentary from Verizon® on this requirement says it all: “The DSS still specifies stateful-inspection firewalls, first launched in 1994.
As the threats to the CDE become more complex, these devices are less able to identify all unauthorized traffic and often get overloaded
with thousands of out-of-date rules. To address this, vendors are now offering ‘next generation’ firewalls that can validate the traffic
at layers 2 to 7, potentially allowing far greater levels of granularity in the rules.”4
Specific examples aside, the key point to realize here is that it’s typically
THREAT INTELLIGENCE
necessary – if not imperative – for security and compliance teams to go CLOUD
above and beyond the DSS requirements in order to establish a security
architecture that more effectively addresses modern/emerging threats
and more closely aligns with their organization’s tolerance for risk.

Palo Alto Networks Approach

AUTOMATED

Description: CLOUD

Unlike traditional solutions, Palo Alto Networks® Next-Generation Security

Platform natively classifies all traffic, regardless of port, protocol, or
OIN T
NET W

encryption. This complete visibility into network activity allows customers

DP
O

K EN
to substantially reduce their attack surface, block all known threats with an
R

NATIVELY EXTENSIBLE
INTEGRATED
integral threat prevention engine, and quickly discover and protect against
unknown threats using the WildFire™ cloud-based threat analysis service.
Next-generation endpoint security capable of stopping unknown threats and NEXT-GENERATION ADVANCED ENDPOINT
automated coordination among the natively integrated solution components FIREWALL PROTECTION
complete the picture. The net result is a truly innovative platform that delivers
maximum protection for an organization’s entire computing environment Figure 1: Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation
while greatly reducing the need for costly human intervention and remediation. ­Security Platform

4. http://www.verizonenterprise.com/pcireport/2015/

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 2
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Robust Network Segmentation

The Palo Alto Networks security platform uniquely ensures isolation of an organization’s cardholder data environment with a
robust set of natively integrated security capabilities, including:
• Control of all traffic at the application level (Layer 7 of the OSI Model). At the heart of our platform, innovative App-ID™
­technology accurately identifies and classifies all traffic by its corresponding application, regardless of ports and protocols,
evasive tactics such as port hopping, or encryption. In highly sensitive or specialized zones of the network, like the CDE, this
provides the best possible control by allowing security administrators to deny all traffic except the few applications that are
explicitly legitimate.
• Least privileges access control across the network. Along with App-ID, User-ID™ and Content-ID™ enable organizations to
tightly control access to the CDE based on an extensive range of business-relevant attributes, including the specific application
and individual functions being used, the actual identity of individual users and groups, and the specific elements of data being
accessed (e.g., credit card or social security numbers). The result is a definitive implementation of least-privileged access control
where administrators can create straightforward security rules to allow only the absolute minimum, legitimate traffic in the zone
while automatically denying everything else.
• Advanced threat protection. A combination of antivirus/malware, intrusion prevention, and advanced threat prevention
­technologies (Content-ID and WildFire) filter all allowed traffic for both known and unknown threats.
• Flexible data filtering. Administrators can allow necessary applications yet still block unwanted file transfer functionality,
block unwanted file types, and control the transfer of sensitive data – such as credit card numbers or custom data patterns
in application content or attachments.
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WAN and Internet

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Non-Segmented Network Using ACLs

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• All servers and associated traffic

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PCI audit. t
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Segmented Network With Palo Alto Networks Isolates

Cardholder Data
• Access to PCI zone is limited to finance users based
on User-ID (i.e., Active Directory® security groups) and
App-ID (i.e., limit internal and internet applications).
• Scope of PCI audit is reduced to cardholder segment
and finance users.

Figure 2: Comparison of flat versus segmented network

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 3
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Next-Generation Security Platform Helps Meet Did you know? Traps helps you fulfill two PCI requirements:
and Exceed Multiple Requirements
PCI DSS Requirement 5: Protect all systems against malware and ­
Reducing the scope of compliance with effective regularly update anti-virus software or programs.
network segmentation is only one way Palo Alto • Traps™ advanced endpoint ­protection is an innovative technology
Networks supports organizations in their efforts to that prevents exploits and malware, both known and unknown,
achieve PCI compliance. It also helps by addressing and exceeds the original PCI DSS requirement, resulting in a much
many of the individual requirements specified in the stronger security and c­ ompliance posture.
DSS, as detailed in Appendix 1.
PCI DSS Requirement 6: Develop and maintain secure systems and
Business Benefits of Exceeding PCI Compliance ­applications.
Using the Next-Generation Security Platform • Palo Alto N
­ etworks customers have reported that their PCI
Several examples have already been provided where QSA approved the use of Traps Exploits ­Prevention feature as
the Palo Alto Networks platform goes above and beyond a ­compensating control for systems that cannot be patched in
PCI DSS requirements to deliver the greater levels of a timely manner.
protection today’s organizations need, including:
• Reduced scope of compliance by isolating PCI devices. The next-generation firewall controls the flow of information within
the CDE zone based on the principle of least privilege to block/deny all users, applications and content except that which is
absolutely necessary.
• Reduced exposure to attack of networked systems from known/unknown attacks, malware and vulnerabilities. The Next-­
Generation Firewall, Threat Intelligence Cloud and Advanced Endpoint Protection are natively integrated to ensure that threats
are quickly identified at all threat vectors into your network and stopped.
• Empower your security team with greater visibility. Native integration within the platform empowers your security team to
quickly identify the important data points that require attention.
Another way our approach delivers next-generation protection that exceeds
We Need Better Firewalls the DSS’s baseline requirements is by providing extensive information sharing
“One of the criticisms that we made of DSS 3.0 in and coordination among elements of the platform. For example, new protections
our 2014 report is that it still refers to stateful-in- developed from WildFire’s real-time threat intelligence are automatically
spection firewalls, a technology that most security distributed to our customers’ systems in as few as five minutes. The net
professionals consider outdated. Malware and result of natively integrated threat prevention capabilities is a closed-loop
hacker attacks that can bypass stateful-inspection architecture that delivers unparalleled threat response without the need
access controls have been common for nearly for manual and time-consuming interventions by an already overwhelmed
a decade. While other security standards have security team.
moved on, PCI DSS has not. […] Their ability to
monitor activity at the application level, deal with Architectural Vision
the explosive growth in the number of devices,
Architecture Considerations:
and block increasingly sophisticated threats make
next-generation firewalls a must-have.” As you plan your PCI segmentation strategy, it is important to understand
the types of devices that will be considered in scope versus out of scope for
– Verizon 2015 PCI Compliance Report PCI DSS compliance. The following are some examples of device types that
may exist in your environment:

TYPICALLY IN-SCOPE FOR PCI: TYPICALLY OUT-OF-SCOPE FOR PCI:

Tablet/Mobile POS: Merchants who collect credit Barcode Scanner: These devices typically do not
card payments via wireless tablets or mobile devices process credit card transactions and hence are
may consider such devices as in scope. usually out of scope.

POS PC: PCs or registers used as as points of sale Laptop/Office PC: Laptops used in departments
may be considered in scope. that do not process credit card numbers are
usually considered out of scope.

POS Server: Servers that receive credit card data

from POS devices and either transmit or store such Other Non-POS Server: Servers that do not
data may be considered in scope. ­process credit card numbers are usually
­considered out of scope.

Phone: If you collect credit card numbers over the

phone, phones may be considered in scope.

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 4
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Reference Architecture
The PCI Reference Architecture below outlines recommended zones of isolation for merchants, regardless of the size of the organization.
Security zones are logical containers for physical interfaces, VLANs, IP address ranges or a combination thereof. The switch and
next-generation firewall icons in the diagram indicate the flexibility of using one, the other, or a combination of both types of devices
to enforce isolation all the way to the Ethernet jack, or access point.

IN SCOPE FOR PCI OUT OF SCOPE FOR PCI

POS POS Non-POS

Tablet/Mobile PC Server Barcode Office PC Server
Access Point Laptop
POS Scanner
Phone

ZONE: Wireless POS ZONE: Wireless Data

Switch
ZONE: POS ZONE: Data

ZONE: Voice
Next-Generation
Firewall

Router

Data Center/WAN

Figure 3: PCI Reference Architecture

Implementation Overview
Products required:
• Next-Generation Firewall
• Threat Prevention Subscription
• WildFire Subscription

How you will do it:

Determine the deployment method(s) you will use to insert next-generation firewalls into your environment:
Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls offer Layer 1 (Virtual Wire), Layer 2, and Layer 3 deployment modes on a single
hardware appliance, along with networking features, like static and dynamic routing capabilities, 802.1Q VLANS, trunked ports,
and traffic shaping. These capabilities allow network engineers to insert the Next-Generation Security Platform into any existing
architectural design without requiring any configuration changes to surrounding or adjacent network devices.
The platform can sit in-line with existing security appliances, either in front or behind. Additionally, it can be deployed to connect
two or more networks together, bridge Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks, or provide full routing and connectivity of all networks and
sub-networks across the organization. Palo Alto Networks also offers the VM-Series next-generation firewalls in virtual form factor,
providing network segmentation within a virtualized server infrastructure.
Multiple management domains (see Figure 1) can be accommodated by taking advantage of the virtual system’s capability
that enables separate, isolated Zero Trust virtual instances on a physical appliance. Virtual systems allow you to segment the
administration of all policies (security, NAT, QoS, etc.) as well as all reporting and visibility functions.

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 5
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

WAN and Internet

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Figure 4: Segmented network with Palo Alto Networks isolates cardholder data

Next, define your PCI zones.

Security zones are logical containers for physical interfaces, VLANs, IP address or a combination thereof. Security zones are utilized
in next-generation firewall security policies to clearly identify one or more source and destination interfaces on the platform. Each
interface on the firewall must be assigned to a security zone before it can process traffic. This allows organizations to create security
zones to represent different segments being connected to, and controlled by, the firewall. For example, security administrators can
allocate all cardholder or patient data repositories in one network segment identified by a security zone (like the Cardholder Data
Environment or “CDE zone”). Then, the administrator can craft security policies that only permit certain users, groups of users, specific
applications or other security zones to access the CDE zone – thereby preventing unauthorized internal or external access to the
data stored in that segment.

Figure 5: Options available when you select ‘Create a Zone’

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 6
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Figure 6 shows the options available when you select ‘Create a Zone.’ You need to associate the zone with at least one interface, and
select the Zone Protection Profile and Log Setting options. If you want to restrict or block access to the zone by IP ranges, you can
complete the ACL options on the right side.
Once you’ve created your PCI zone, you need to define rules to allow/block access to it. Figure 3 shows an example of how easy it
is for administrators to define straightforward rules to control access to zones.
• The first rule, titled “PCI,” allows users in the Users zone who are in the “Finance” Active Directory security group to access the
Oracle® application in the CC_Servers zone.
• The second rule blocks any other users from accessing the CC_Servers zone and logs them.

Figure 6: Two example rules to isolate and protect cardholder data in CC_Servers zone

Figure 7: Step-by-step screenshots showing creation of two rules to isolate and protect cardholder data in a PCI zone

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 7
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Actual Customer Deployment:

Deploying NGFW in Layer 3 Mode to Reduce Scope of PCI Compliance

Internal Zone
Non-POS PA-7050
Devices in L3 mode
VL9
0

VL90

PCI Zone
POS Devices VL170
Internet
Distribution Core Switches Edge PA-5050 Public Routers
0 Switches in L3 mode
17
VL

PA-7050
in L3 mode

ZONE VLAN(s) Description

Internal Zone VL90 Internal Zone includes VL90 which contains all non-POS
PCI Zone VL170 PCI Zone contains VL170 which contains all POS devices

The above diagram shows how an actual customer, a hospital, deployed next-generation firewalls to isolate point-of-sale devices
from the rest of their network and effectively reduce the scope of compliance to include only the devices within the PCI zone.
The customer architecture incorporates two redundant PA-7050s in Layer 3 mode hanging off a Cisco distribution switch. A PCI
zone is configured in the NGFW to include VL170, which contains all the POS devices. The customer used several other zones
to isolate various devices on their network, but for simplicity, we will only show the internal and PCI zones. The internal zone is
configured in the NGFW to include VL90, which is the primary internal network where non-POS devices connect. Traffic between
the internal and PCI zones is controlled by a PCI Security Policy defined in PAN-OS®.

Actual Customer Deployment:

Using GlobalProtect, VM-Series NGFW and AWS to Reduce the Scope of PCI Compliance

Fueling Stations Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud Customer Data Center
Customer’s clients with self-managed IT On Premise

GP Policies defined in NGFW to allow

GP diagnostics to pass but block
cardholder data from entering
their on-premise data center
Location 1 OSP
GlobalProtect
Windows PC
Gateway in AWS
GP
GP East Region

Cardholder Data Blocked

GlobalProtect
Location 2 OSP
GP GP and VM-Series
NGFW in AWS Data collection servers
Windows PC
Central Gateway within customer data center
used to analyze diagnostic
info from OSPs
GlobalProtect
Location 3 OSP Gateway in AWS
Windows PC West Region

The above diagram shows how an actual customer, providing fuel management system monitoring services, deployed GlobalProtect
and VM-Series virtualized next-generation firewalls into Amazon® Web Services to prevent cardholder data from entering their own
network and, hence, removed their network from the scope of PCI.
The customer monitors underground tanks and lines at thousands of retail fuel stations across the U.S. Using advanced statistical
analysis and system diagnostics, the company ensures the accuracy of all consumption readings and proactively identifies tank
systems at risk of leaks, illegal siphoning, or other potentially hazardous situations. The customer installs remote data collection
devices on each fuel station’s local network. These devices are minimally configured network appliances called “on-site processors.”
The OSPs collect data from every dispenser, tank and line at the station and transmit it back to the customer’s data center for
analysis and reporting.
The customer architecture incorporates virtual GlobalProtect™ gateways in AWS® for geographical optimization (one for the East
region, one for the West) and a VM-Series NGFW to block threats and cardholder data from entering their network. By preventing
cardholder data from entering their own network, they excluded their data center from the scope of PCI compliance.

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 8
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Advice and Next Steps Business Benefits

No single vendor or solution can provide complete PCI DSS compliance. What • Lower risk exposure to the
merchants require instead is a thorough set of policies, processes and practices – cardholder data environment
including network segmentation – supported by an essential set of technological (CDE) to malware and threats
countermeasures to enforce them. Regardless of how you choose to implement that propagate through network
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform in your environment, you
can be sure that the flexibility of integration options will facilitate a smooth • Decreased risk due to improved
implementation of controls that help you meet and exceed PCI DSS requirements. compliance with PCI DSS
o Brand Damage
Now that you understand what’s involved as you prepare to deploy Palo Alto o Litigation
Networks next-generation firewalls to enhance your PCI compliance, go ahead o Fines from credit card
and get started: institutions and banks
PAN-OS® Administrator’s Guide
Operational Benefits
https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/documentation • Reporting simplifies PCI audit
process by demonstrating
compliance
• Improved visibility and control
over network traffic into/out of
CDE zone

Technical Benefits
• Simplified security architecture
• Multiple integration options
facilitate ease of deployment
into any environment

Customer References:
“Palo Alto Networks provides exactly what CRHC was
looking for. While the o
­ riginal reason for looking at
Palo Alto Networks was PCI compliance – which has been
achieved – the benefits provided far exceed compliance.”

“Partitioning the network and the PCI area ­specifically

was one of the reasons b ­ ehind the selection of
Palo Alto ­Networks. It enabled the company to
manage this a­ spect autonomously without the need for
assistance of ­specialists, leaving these free to support
Europ Assistance during the certification stage.”

“Palo Alto Networks enabled us to achieve PCI

­compliance and secure the key data of our customers
at approximately 10-15% less in costs.”

Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case 9
USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

Appendix

PCI Security Requirements Supported by Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform
The Next-Generation Security Platform supports many of the 300 individual requirements specified in the PCI DSS, as
itemized in the ­following tables.

Compliance Capabilities

NEXT-GEN
PCI DSS REQUIREMENT FIREWALL WILDFIRE TRAPS
Requirement 1:
Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data

Requirement 2:
Do not use vendor-­supplied defaults for system passwords and other security
parameters
Requirement 3:
Protect stored cardholder data

Requirement 4:
Encrypt transmission of cardholder data across open, public networks

Requirement 5:
Protect all systems against malware and regularly update anti‐virus software or
programs

Requirement 6:
Develop and maintain secure systems and applications

Requirement 7:
Restrict access to cardholder data by business need to know

Requirement 8:
Identify and authenticate access to system components
Requirement 9:
Restrict physical access to cardholder data
Requirement 10:
Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data

Requirement 11:
Regularly test security systems and processes

Requirement 12:
Maintain a security policy that addresses information security for
all personnel

Figure 8: Next-Generation Security Platform PCI DSS compliance capabilities

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USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation
PCI Security Requirements Supported by the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform
The Next-Generation Security Platform supports many of the 300 individual requirements specified in the PCI DSS, as itemized
in the following table.
PCI DSS REQUIREMENT
Requirement 1:
Install and maintain a firewall
configuration to protect
cardholder data
Requirement 2:
Do not use vendor-supplied
defaults for system passwords
and other security parameters
Requirement 3:
Protect stored cardholder data
Requirement 4:
Encrypt transmission of
cardholder data across
open, public networks
Requirement 5:
Protect all systems against
malware and regularly update
anti-virus software or programs
Requirement 6:
Develop and maintain secure
systems and applications
Palo Alto Networks | Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation | Use Case
SUPPORTED SUB-
REQUIREMENTS DESCRIPTION OF CAPABILITIES
1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.3, Palo Alto Networks portfolio of hardware and virtual next-generation
1.3, 1.3.1, 1.3.2, firewalls enables definitive least-privileged access control (i.e., deny all
1.3.3, 1.3.4, 1.3.5, applications, users and content except for that which is necessary) for
1.3.6, 1.3.7, 1.3.8 all networks involving cardholder data. Palo Alto Networks supports all
sub-requirements pertaining to DMZ implementations intended to
prohibit direct public access between the internet and any CDE system.
2.3 The intent behind Requirement 2 is to implement sufficient preventive
controls to reduce the attack surface. These controls include changing
vendor passwords; enabling only necessary services, protocols and
daemons; and removing unnecessary functionality, such as scripts,
drivers, features, subsystems, file systems, and web servers. For a
relatively complex cardholder data environment, there are potentially
thousands of instances in which unnecessary services, unnecessary
functionality, and insecure services could operate.
Traps provides an automated preventive control capability to reduce
risks associated with threat vectors or attack points. The unique approach
employed by Traps ensures that, even if unnecessary services are running,
vulnerabilities in those services cannot be exploited. Traps will block the
exploit technique and prevent any malicious activities from occurring.
Insightful forensics evidence is collected to support incident response
processes or further investigative activities. With Traps operating in the
CDE, organizations can reduce their risk to a level more in-line with the
business’ risk tolerance position.
n/a This requirement focuses on reducing the amount of cardholder data
stored and ensuring that stored data is appropriately masked and
encrypted. Encryption alone does not protect against malware that
scrapes the unencrypted cardholder data from memory. Traps prevents
exploits and malware from launching malicious code that would try to
compromise encryptions keys or cardholder data. If key management
processes do break down, Traps provides an effective compensating
control for PCI DSS Section 3.6.
4.1, 4.2 Standards-based IPsec VPNs are supported for secure site-to-site
connectivity, while GlobalProtect delivers secure remote access for
individual users via either an TSL or IPsec-protected connection. With
its unique application, user and content identification technologies, the
Palo Alto Networks platform is also able to thoroughly and reliably control
the use of potentially risky end-user messaging technologies (e.g., email,
instant messaging, and chat) down to the level of individual functions
(e.g., allow messages but disallow attachments and file transfers).
n/a The Palo Alto Networks security platform includes advanced endpoint
protection that provides a much-needed complement to legacy antivirus
solutions that are largely incapable of providing protection against unknown
malware, zero-day exploits, and advanced persistent threats (APTs).
6.6 As a fully application-aware solution, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation
Security Platform is capable of preventing a wide range of application-layer
attacks that have, for example, taken advantage of improperly coded or
configured web apps.
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USE CASE: Simplify PCI Compliance With Network Segmentation

SUPPORTED
SUB-
PCI DSS REQUIREMENT REQUIREMENTS DESCRIPTION OF CAPABILITIES

Requirement 7:
Restrict access to cardholder
data by business need to know
7.2, 7.2.1, 7.2.3 Granular, policy-based control over applications, users and content,
regardless of the user’s device or location, enables organizations to
implement definitive, least-privileged access control that truly limits
access to cardholder data based on business “need to know,” with
“deny all” for everything else. Tight integration with Active Directory
and other identity stores, plus support for role-based access control,
enables enforcement of privileges assigned to individuals based on job
classification and function.

Requirement 8:
Identify and authenticate
access to system components
8.1, 8.1.1, 8.1.3, Native capabilities and tight integration with Active Directory and
8.1.4, 8.1.6, 8.1.7, other identity stores support a wide range of authentication policies,
8.1.8, 8.2, 8.2.1, including: use of unique user IDs, immediate revocation for terminated
8.2.3,8.2.4, 8.2.5, users, culling of inactive accounts, lockout after a specified number
8.3, 8.5, 8.6 of failed login attempts, lockout duration, idle session timeouts, and
password reset and minimum strength requirements. Support is also
provided for several forms of multi-factor authentication, including
tokens and smart cards.

Requirement 9: n/a n/a

Restrict physical access
to cardholder data

Requirement 10:
Track and monitor all access
to network resources and
cardholder data
10.1, 10.2, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform maintains extensive
10.2.1, 10.2.2, logs/audit trails for WildFire, configurations, system changes, alarms,
10.2.3,10.2.4, traffic flows, threats, URL filtering, data filtering, and Host Information
10.2.5, 10.2.6, Profile matches. The solution also supports both daily and periodic
10.2.7, 10.3, 10.3.1, review of log data with both native, customizable reporting capabilities
10.3.2, 10.3.3, and the ability to write log data to a syslog server for archival and
10.3.4, 10.3.5, analysis by third-party solutions (including popular security event and
10.3.6, 10.4, 10.6, information management systems, such as Splunk®).
10.6.1, 10.6.2,
10.6.3,

Requirement 11:
Regularly test security
systems and processes
11.4 Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform fully inspects all
allowed communication sessions for threat identification and prevention.
A single, unified threat engine delivers intrusion prevention, stream-based
antivirus prevention, and blocking of unapproved file types and data.
The cloud-based WildFire engine extends these capabilities further by
identifying and working in conjunction with on-premise components to
prevent unknown and targeted malware and exploits. The net result is
comprehensive protection from all types of threat in a single pass of traffic.

Requirement 12: n/a n/a

Maintain a security policy that
addresses information security
for all personnel

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