SecureWorks Designated as a Qualified Security Assessor for PCI Audits

Now able to certify retailers, utilities, financial institutions, healthcare organizations and others

ATLANTA, Dec. 18 -- SecureWorks, one of the industry's leading security services providers protecting over 2,000 clients, has been designated as a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) by the Payment Cards Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council. The PCI Security Standards Council, created by the five major credit card companies, is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for customer account data protection.

The QSA designation means that SecureWorks is now qualified to assess an organization's compliance to 12 requirements known as the PCI Data Security Standards (DSS), which were updated in 2006. Banks, merchants, credit card processors, hosting providers and any other organizations that, store, process or transmit cardholder data are mandated to be compliant with the PCI DSS.

  As a QSA, SecureWorks provides the following services:

  -- Quarterly/monthly external scanning
  -- Quarterly internal scanning
  -- Network  Penetration testing
  -- Annual onsite audit/ report on compliance
  -- PCI design and scope advisory services
  -- Self-assessment questionnaire review and compliance assessment
  -- Remediation services and solutions
  -- Technical support
  -- Incident and forensic response

SecureWorks is also an authorized scanning vendor (ASV) and has been for nearly two years. It is another designation by the PCI Standards Security Council. The company is fully certified to provide vulnerability scanning. Organizations are required to undergo quarterly scans of all internal and external assets that interact with credit card data, and SecureWorks has been effectively reviewing scan results to identify any issues that organizations may need to correct for compliance purposes.

"Organizations across the board are having to demonstrate that they are compliant with the PCI Data Security Standards. The standards don't just pertain to retailers and financial institutions, it affects utility companies, healthcare organizations -any entity storing, transmitting or processing credit card data," said Erik Petersen, vice president of Professional Services at SecureWorks. "Compliance continues to be one of the driving forces motivating organizations to tighten up loop holes in their information security, and although the PCI Standards Council will not penalize you for non-compliance, credit card processors might implement financial or usage penalties. In addition, data breaches are also a concern. If an organization does not put the proper information security measures in place, they run the risk of being compromised. This can be costly, both financially and from a reputational perspective."

About SecureWorks

With over 2,000 clients, SecureWorks is the leading security services provider safeguarding more organizations than any other vendor. SecureWorks provides the most effective security services by leveraging our integrated security management platform, advanced security research and 100 percent GIAC certified experts. SecureWorks also won SC Magazine's MSSP of the Year 2006 & 2007, Best Intrusion Prevention 2006 and has been consistently named to the Inc 500 and Deloitte & Touche lists of fastest-growing companies.