PCI DSS Compliance Services for Merchants and Small Businesses
PCI DSS compliance services are usually bought after the acquiring bank sends a letter: validate or pay a monthly non-compliance fee. The questionnaire arrives, and the owner discovers the register, the office Wi-Fi, the back-office PC and the e-commerce site are all on one flat network, which puts everything in scope. NetSys shrinks the scope first, then builds and evidences the controls that remain.
The short answer
PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a contractual requirement that reaches any business storing, processing or transmitting cardholder data, enforced through the card brands and your acquiring bank rather than by a government agency. Most small merchants validate by completing a self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) and an attestation, with the SAQ type set by how you take payments; some also need quarterly external scans from an Approved Scanning Vendor. NetSys provides PCI compliance consulting for merchants: determining your SAQ type, segmenting the network so most of the business falls out of scope, implementing the applicable controls, coordinating scans and keeping evidence. We are not a Qualified Security Assessor or an Approved Scanning Vendor, and the attestation is signed by you.
The most useful thing to understand about PCI DSS is scope. The standard applies to the cardholder data environment and to anything connected to it or able to affect its security. A restaurant group whose payment terminals share a network with the office computers has a cardholder data environment the size of the company. The same group with terminals on an isolated segment, talking only to the processor, has one the size of the terminals.
Our PCI DSS compliance services begin there, because scope decides both the SAQ you fill out and the cost of everything after it. Once the environment is small and defined, the remaining requirements are ordinary security engineering: firewall rules, hardened systems, patched software, MFA, logging and testing. We already run those for managed clients.
Shrink the Scope, Pick the Right SAQ, Then Prove It
We start with our free remote external penetration test, limited to available information and agreed external scope. Under a separate assessment and implementation scope, we document how cards flow through the business (terminals, virtual terminal, website, phone orders) and identify the SAQ type your acquirer will expect. Network segmentation isolates the payment systems, with rules tested to confirm nothing else can reach them. We implement the requirements that remain, coordinate quarterly ASV scans where they apply, schedule internal scanning and testing, and organize the evidence so the annual attestation is a review of records.
What Our PCI DSS Compliance Services Cover
Scoping and SAQ Selection
Which questionnaire, and how little it can cover.
- Card flow mapping across terminals, e-commerce, virtual terminals and phone orders
- SAQ type determined and confirmed with your acquirer's requirements
- Cardholder data environment defined and documented, with a network diagram
- Payment methods that reduce scope, such as hosted payment pages and validated point-to-point encryption
Network Segmentation and Hardening
The control that makes every other control cheaper.
- Payment systems isolated on their own segment with firewall rules that allow only the processor
- Guest and staff Wi-Fi separated from anything that touches cards
- Segmentation tested to confirm the boundary holds, and re-tested after changes
- Terminals, workstations and servers hardened, patched and managed
Access, Monitoring and Scanning
Who gets in, what gets logged, what gets found.
- Unique accounts and MFA for anyone administering the cardholder data environment
- Logging and alerting for the in-scope systems, retained for the standard's review
- Quarterly external scans coordinated with an Approved Scanning Vendor where your SAQ requires them
- Internal vulnerability scanning and penetration testing where the SAQ requires them
Policies, Evidence and Attestation
The paperwork your acquirer and processor ask for.
- Security policy, incident response plan and staff training records aligned to the requirements
- Evidence library organized by requirement number for the annual attestation
- Support completing the SAQ and attestation of compliance for submission to your acquirer
- Delivered remotely nationwide; on-site for retail and restaurant locations in our coverage areas
Why Merchants Choose NetSys for PCI DSS Compliance Services
Fifteen minutes with a NetSys engineer, not a salesperson, and you will know where your pci dss compliance services stands and what it would take to fix it. Call 845-203-3914 or request a call to discuss the scope and next steps.
Who does the work: meet the NetSys team on our About page.
- Scope reduction first, so you validate against the smallest questionnaire your payment setup allows
- Segmentation is designed and tested by the engineers who run your network, then monitored
- Honest about roles: we build and evidence; QSAs assess and ASVs scan
- Vulnerability management, monitoring and disaster recovery are part of the managed agreement
- Month to month, starting with a free remote external penetration test within an agreed external scope
Where we deliver PCI DSS Compliance Services
PCI DSS Compliance Services in New York City · PCI DSS Compliance Services in Brooklyn, NY · PCI DSS Compliance Services in Nassau County, NY · PCI DSS Compliance Services in New Jersey · PCI DSS Compliance Services in Tampa Bay. We also support clients remotely wherever their systems run. See all locations and service areas.
PCI DSS Compliance Services FAQs
What is PCI compliance?
PCI compliance means meeting the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for every system that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data, and validating it each year in the form your acquiring bank asks for. The standard comes from the PCI Security Standards Council; the card brands and acquirers enforce it through merchant agreements rather than a government agency. The current version is PCI DSS v4.0.1, published in June 2024, and its future-dated requirements became mandatory on March 31, 2025.
What are PCI DSS compliance services?
PCI DSS compliance services help a merchant meet the card industry's security standard and validate it to its acquiring bank. The work includes mapping how card data flows, defining and reducing the cardholder data environment, selecting the right self-assessment questionnaire, implementing the required controls, coordinating vulnerability scans, and keeping evidence. NetSys delivers the engineering and evidence; formal assessments and scans come from QSAs and ASVs.
Which PCI SAQ do we need?
It depends on how you accept cards. SAQ A is for merchants who fully outsource card handling, such as a hosted payment page; A-EP when your own site affects the payment page; B and B-IP for standalone terminals; C-VT for a single computer running a virtual terminal; C for payment applications connected to the internet; P2PE for validated encrypted terminals; and D for everything else, including anyone who stores card data. Your acquirer has the final say.
What are the PCI DSS requirements?
PCI DSS v4.0.1 has 12 principal requirements: network security controls, secure configurations, protection of stored account data, strong cryptography for cardholder data sent over public networks, protection from malicious software, secure systems and software, access limited by business need to know, identification and authentication, physical access controls, logging and monitoring, regular security testing, and policies and programs that support the rest. How many of them you answer for depends on your SAQ: a merchant that fully outsources card handling answers far fewer questions than one that stores card data.
What is a PCI compliance audit?
For most small merchants there is no outside audit: you complete the self-assessment questionnaire and attestation of compliance and submit them to your acquirer. Larger merchants, by the levels each card brand sets, are assessed by a Qualified Security Assessor, who issues a Report on Compliance. Either way the same evidence is asked for: the network diagram, scan results, access records, logs and policies, which is what we organize.
How much do PCI DSS compliance services cost?
The cost tracks your scope. A single-location business with terminals on an isolated segment and no stored card data needs a short questionnaire and a handful of controls. For NetSys managed clients most in-scope controls are already part of the monthly agreement. We do not publish prices, and ASV scan fees and any QSA fees are separate.
Do we need PCI DSS compliance if we use a third-party payment processor?
Yes, though the scope may be small. Using a processor moves most of the risk off your systems, but you still have to validate, usually with a short questionnaire, and you still have responsibility for the devices, website code and network segments that touch the payment flow. Outsourcing reduces the questionnaire; it does not remove the obligation to your acquirer.
What is network segmentation for PCI?
Segmentation isolates the systems that handle card data from the rest of your network, so the standard's requirements apply only to that isolated part. Usually it means putting terminals or the payment workstation on their own VLAN with firewall rules that allow traffic only to the processor. Segmentation is not required by the standard, but without it every device you own is in scope.
Does PCI DSS require penetration testing?
Yes. Requirement 11.4 of PCI DSS v4.0.1 calls for internal and external penetration testing at least once every 12 months and after any significant infrastructure or application change. If segmentation keeps systems out of scope, those segmentation controls must be tested at least every 12 months and after changes to them, or every six months for service providers. Testers must be qualified and organizationally independent, though not necessarily a QSA or ASV. Your SAQ type decides which parts apply.
Can NetSys certify us as PCI compliant?
No. PCI validation for small merchants is a self-assessment and attestation you sign and submit to your acquirer; larger merchants are assessed by a Qualified Security Assessor; external scans must come from an Approved Scanning Vendor. NetSys holds none of those roles. We prepare the environment and the evidence, and we tell you plainly when a requirement is not met.
Guides on this topic
Get most of your network out of scope.
We map how cards move through the business, then work out which self-assessment questionnaire your acquirer expects. Segmentation comes next, so the register sits apart from the office network instead of dragging every device into scope. We build and evidence the controls; any external scan required of you comes from an approved scanning vendor.