How to Secure Your Drata for PCI DSS and Obtain the PCI DSS Badge/Seal

 

To get your Drata environment ready for PCI DSS compliance and earn the prestigious PCI DSS badge/seal, you need to follow a step-by-step approach. Drata is a security and compliance automation platform, but for PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), there are extra steps to fully secure your processes and pass the official audit.

• Understand PCI DSS Requirements: PCI DSS is a set of security standards designed to protect payment card information. Major requirements include building secure networks, protecting cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, strong access controls, continuous monitoring, and having an information security policy.
• Secure Your Drata Account: Start with strong authentication on your Drata account. Use SSO (Single Sign-On) with enforced MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication). Limit admin access only to necessary roles, and regularly review permissions.
• Connect and Monitor Relevant Systems: Ensure Drata continuously monitors all systems and assets that touch cardholder data — this means including your code repositories, cloud environments, ticket trackers, HR systems, and more within your Drata scope. Document all data flows where payment card data could be handled.
• Automate Controls and Evidence Collection: Drata shines here: map PCI DSS controls (firewalls, patching, encryption, monitoring, role access, etc.) to workflows in Drata. Regularly check if all control requirements (like up-to-date patching, least privilege, SSL everywhere) are green and evidence is collected. If something falls out of compliance, Drata will notify you instantly.
• Fill Gaps with Policies and Procedures: While Drata can automate evidence collection and alerting, you still need robust, customized policies that match PCI DSS. Make sure you have documented processes for risk assessments, incident response, password requirements, and vendor management. Many Drata templates help here — customize them for PCI DSS rigor.
• Prepare for PCI Readiness Assessment: Before your audit, partner with an expert like OCD Tech for a readiness assessment. They will review your Drata setup, policy documents, configuration, and evidence to ensure nothing is missing for PCI DSS compliance. This step helps avoid surprises with auditors.
• Engage a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA): The PCI DSS badge/seal requires a formal assessment by an independent, approved QSA. Drata simplifies evidence sharing, but the QSA will still want to interview staff, review configs, and examine your evidence of compliance.
• Remediate Any Findings: Quickly fix issues found by the QSA or during readiness reviews. This often includes adjusting firewall rules, improving data encryption, restricting external access, or shoring up documentation.
• Badge Submission and Approval: After a successful audit, submit your full PCI DSS Report on Compliance (RoC) and Attestation of Compliance (AoC), with supporting Drata evidence, to the PCI Council or other stakeholders. Drata offers an official PCI badge/seal once your compliance is verified, which you can display to customers and partners as proof of meeting PCI DSS standards.
• Ongoing Compliance and Monitoring: PCI DSS is not a one-time task — it’s continuous. With Drata, set up automated alerts for any changes that could affect compliance. Regularly review controls, user access, and system changes. Schedule periodic readiness assessments with OCD Tech to ensure long-term compliance.

Most Important Elements to Pass a PCI DSS Audit with Drata:

• Comprehensive scope: Make sure all systems touching cardholder data are monitored.
• Evidence-ready controls: Map Drata controls and collect live, up-to-date evidence.
• Strong policies: Use Drata templates, but tailor them for PCI DSS rigor.
• Clear user access management: Control who can access sensitive info and track all changes.
• Readiness partnership: Work with a firm such as OCD Tech for pre-audit assessment.
• Responsive remediation: Quickly address any issues found during assessments.

How to get How to Secure Your Drata for PCI DSS badge/seal? The key is mapping PCI DSS controls effectively in Drata, ensuring all evidence is up-to-date, partnering with a readiness-assessment provider like OCD Tech, and working with an approved QSA for the validation audit. Once you receive the Attestation of Compliance, display your PCI DSS badge/seal confidently, knowing you’ve protected payment data through industry best practice.