Advisory & Data Protection
QSA-led PCI DSS compliance from gap analysis to Report on Compliance — with scope reduction built in, from assessors who've done this since 2009.
If you store, process or transmit payment card data, PCI DSS compliance is a contractual commitment to your acquiring bank or your clients — and proving it can be slow, confusing and expensive if you tackle it alone. Blackfoot is a PCI QSA company: our Qualified Security Assessors have been assessing organisations against the standard since 2009.
That matters because the assessor's judgement shapes your entire compliance effort. Before validating anything, our QSAs look for legitimate ways to reduce your scope and controls applicability — often the single biggest saving available in a PCI programme. Less in scope means less to secure, less to evidence and less to pay for, year after year.
We support every validation route. For organisations self-assessing, we provide gap analysis and SAQ support, helping you select the right questionnaire and answer it defensibly. For those requiring formal validation, our QSAs deliver full Report on Compliance (ROC) assessments. And where a bank, partner or client needs assurance outside the standard cycle, we can provide a QSA statement of opinion on your compliance position.
Every engagement follows the same pattern: meticulous planning around your technical environment, evidence capture with your control owners, and a closing review that explains findings plainly. You finish with your ROC or SAQ and Attestation of Compliance — and a clear view of anything that needs attention before next year. Because we've assessed merchants and service providers across retail, finance, hospitality and technology, we know where evidence gathering usually stalls and plan around it.
That "next year" is where most PCI programmes fail: evidence goes stale and controls drift for ten months, then panic sets in. Our Compliance as a Service subscription solves this, with QSA-led sessions through the year on the Clarity portal so you stay compliant year-round instead of re-fighting the same battle every assessment.
Every engagement is delivered by experienced Qualified Security Assessors — the people authorised to make the compliance judgement, not intermediaries.
We actively look to shrink your cardholder data environment and controls applicability before you spend money securing things you don't need to.
Gap analysis, SAQ selection and support, full ROC assessments and QSA statements of opinion — matched to what your bank or clients actually require.
Clear reporting and a closing review session, so your team understands each finding and how to fix it — no decoding assessor-speak.
Audit and assurance has been the cornerstone of Blackfoot's business since 2009, across retail, finance, hospitality and service providers.
Move from annual panic to continuous compliance with QSA oversight through our Compliance as a Service subscription on Clarity.
We map your cardholder data flows and technical environment, confirm your merchant or service-provider level, and identify scope-reduction opportunities.
Our QSAs assess your environment against the applicable PCI DSS requirements and deliver a prioritised remediation plan.
Your team closes the gaps with our QSAs on hand to advise, validate approaches and keep remediation proportionate.
We complete your ROC assessment or support your SAQ, capturing and validating evidence with your control owners, and conclude with a findings review.
You receive your Attestation of Compliance — and can carry the momentum into Compliance as a Service for QSA-led oversight all year on Clarity.
Straight answers to what prospective clients ask us most.
It depends on your transaction volumes and what your acquiring bank or clients require. Many organisations can self-assess with an SAQ; larger merchants and most service providers need a QSA-led ROC. We'll confirm your validation requirements at the start so you don't over- or under-invest.
It's a formal opinion from a Qualified Security Assessor on your PCI DSS compliance position, used when a bank, partner or client wants assurance outside a full ROC cycle. It carries the weight of QSA judgement without the cost of a complete assessment.
Scope reduction is the biggest lever: redesigning payment flows, segmenting networks and removing card data from systems that don't need it. Our QSAs assess scope-reduction opportunities before validating controls, because every system taken out of scope saves money every year thereafter.
A gap analysis typically takes a few weeks; a full ROC assessment depends on the size of your environment, usually a few months including evidence collection. Meticulous planning up front keeps the process predictable.
PCI DSS requires recurring activity all year — patching, scanning, access reviews, logging checks. Our Compliance as a Service subscription tracks it in the Clarity portal with bi-monthly QSA-led sessions, so evidence stays current and your next assessment starts from a known-good position.
Get a fixed-scope quote, usually the same working day.
