12.8.1 List of third-party service providers
The entity must keep a list of every TPSP that receives account data from it or that could influence how safe that data is, and must describe the services each one provides. Applicability: using a PCI DSS compliant TPSP neither makes the entity compliant nor removes its own responsibility for compliance. Customized approach objective: records of TPSPs and the services they supply are kept.
Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 12.8.1. 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
none for this control
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Records of additions and removals · Vendor register / contract repository
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- TPSP inventory with service descriptions · Vendor register / contract repository
- Procedure for maintaining the TPSP list · Vendor register / contract repository
- Procurement or contract register reconciled to the list · Vendor register / contract repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Cloud, SaaS or remote-support vendors omitted
- List lacks a description of services
- List not reconciled with procurement records
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 sheet12.7.1 Pre-hire screening of personnel with CDE access · 12.8.2 TPSP contracts acknowledging account data responsibility