EvidenceSheet
PCI DSS v4.0.1 · Req 3: Protect Stored Account Data

3.4.2 Remote access blocks copying or relocating PAN

When personnel use remote-access technologies, technical controls must stop them from copying and/or moving PAN, apart from people who hold explicit, documented approval plus a defined, legitimate business reason. Guidance notes a virtual desktop as an example of such technology, that these tools often have settings to disable copy and move functions, and that storage devices include local and virtual drives, removable media, network drives and cloud storage. Applicability: saving PAN to removable electronic media, local hard drives or any other storage device brings those devices into PCI DSS scope. Objective under the customized approach: unauthorized personnel cannot copy or relocate PAN through remote-access technologies. Future-dated: treated as a best practice up to 31 March 2025 and mandatory since then.

Source: PCI DSS v4.0.1, 3.4.2. 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.

5
artefacts
3
held by a system
1
at each review
easy
to go live
Cloud console / configuration management
where the evidence lives
teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

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

  • Remote desktop or VDI configuration disabling clipboard, drive mapping and file transfer · Cloud console / configuration management
  • DLP policy and alerts covering PAN movement from remote sessions · SIEM / log platform
  • Group policy or session broker settings export · Policy repository / GRC workspace

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

  • Interview notes and observation of a remote session attempting copy · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

  • Maintained list of personnel allowed to copy or relocate PAN with written authorization and business need · Document repository

First move

Automate the pull from your Cloud console / configuration management. Configuration snapshots and change history from the cloud console or IaC repository, diffed against the baseline.

Common gaps auditors find

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.

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3.4.1 PAN masked on display except for authorized roles · 3.5.1 Stored PAN rendered unreadable