Overview PCI-DSS Level 1 hardening for a retail payment platform: tokenization, WAF, and fraud controls. Challenges 1 No segmentation or transaction monitoring in CDE. 2 Exposed payment APIs without rate limits. 3 Expanded attack surface from distributed workforce and inadequately hardened endpoints. 4 PCI gaps in logging, access, and vuln management. 5 Extended mean time to detect due to fragmented logging and absent threat correlation. Solution 1 Deployed next-generation firewalls with application-aware inspection and integrated threat intelligence. 2 Implemented network intrusion detection with automated containment playbooks. 3 Established zero-trust network access replacing legacy VPN with identity-verified connectivity. 4 Conducted gap assessment and aligned control environment to ISO 27001 requirements. 5 Established 24/7 security operations with centralized SIEM correlation and escalation procedures.
