10.7.3 Respond promptly to critical security control failures
When any critical security control system fails, the entity must respond promptly, including at least by: restoring the security functions; identifying and recording the duration of the failure (start and end date and time); identifying and recording the cause(s) and the remediation needed; identifying and dealing with any security problems that arose while the control was down; deciding whether further action is needed because of the failure; putting controls in place so the cause does not recur; and resuming monitoring of security controls. Applicability: applies to service providers only until 31 March 2025 (an existing v3.2.1 service provider requirement) and to all entities after that date. Future-dated for entities other than service providers: treated as a best practice up to 31 March 2025 and mandatory since then. Objective under the customized approach: failures are analysed, contained and resolved, controls are restored to limit impact, resulting security issues are dealt with and recurrence is prevented.
Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 10.7.3. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open PCI DSS v4.0.1 in the compliance library.
Version 4.0.1 is the active version; 4.0 has been retired. Appendix A1 applies only to multi-tenant service providers, A2 only to card-present POS POI terminals that still use SSL or early TLS, and A3 only when a payment brand or acquirer requires it. Which requirements apply to you follows your validation type.
These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.
system holds itEvidence a system already holds
- Problem or incident records for past failures showing cause, start and end time, and remediation · Document repository
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Evidence of security review of activity during the failure window · Document repository
- Records of preventive changes made after a failure · Document repository
- Confirmation that monitoring was resumed after restoration · Backup / DR tooling
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Documented response procedure for critical security control failures covering all seven steps · Policy repository / GRC workspace
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Failure tickets closed on restoration with no root cause recorded
- Duration of failure not documented, so the exposure window is unknown
- No review of what happened in the environment while the control was down
Do this for your whole sheet
Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.
Build my evidence sheet10.7.2 Detect and alert on critical security control failures · 11.1.1 Requirement 11 policies and procedures managed