Accepting credit card payments can be a convenient way for law firms to serve their clients, but it also triggers the need for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance. Whether you’re billing retainers or client fees, ensuring secure payment operations is paramount.

Fortunately, there’s a practical way to address PCI requirements and minimize your workload: Bento Security’s end-to-end IT and cybersecurity management, augmented by our compliance automation platform, Bento Assurance HQ. Here’s a step-by-step look at how law firms can achieve PCI DSS compliance and how Bento can streamline the process.

The first step is assessing if (and how) your firm handles credit card data:

• Do you process payments in-house?

• Use standalone point-of-sale terminals?

• Fully outsource to a third-party provider?

Answering these questions clarifies which Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) applies and determines whether you’re considered a “merchant.” If you accept or handle card data—even occasionally—you’re in scope for PCI DSS.

How Bento Helps:
Bento’s team conducts a quick discovery session to identify the people, processes, and technologies touching payment data. We document your payment flows and map them to PCI DSS requirements. Our Bento Assurance HQ platform makes it easy to visualize your card data environment and confirm which SAQ you fall under.

PCI DSS requires strict controls over any network storing, processing, or transmitting credit card data. This can be tricky in a modern law firm with multiple software tools, cloud providers, or remote staff.

How Bento Helps:
Using Bento Assurance HQ, you can build and maintain an up-to-date inventory of all systems, applications, and personnel roles connected with credit card operations. We integrate with popular collaboration and billing tools so you get a unified view. This speeds up the scoping process while reducing the risk of missing a hidden data repository.

At the heart of PCI DSS is the principle of “secure by default.” That means firewalls, segmentation, encryption, vulnerability management, and strong access controls. For smaller environments, these might sound intimidating—but they don’t have to be.

How Bento Helps:
We bring a NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) lens to PCI DSS. Our specialized playbooks blend the controls from NIST CSF with PCI DSS, so your infrastructure is hardened according to leading best practices. Once installed, Bento automatically monitors these controls, verifying that everything from firewall rule sets to encryption keys aligns with PCI DSS.

Most small-volume merchants (like many law firms) use the relevant SAQ to validate compliance. Regardless of which SAQ is yours—A, B, C-VT, or D—you’ll complete a questionnaire each year, identifying areas of risk and documenting compliance.

How Bento Helps:
Rather than sifting through piles of paper and spreadsheets, Bento Assurance HQ provides a structured, interactive SAQ workflow. Our platform correlates your documented controls to the PCI DSS sub-requirements. Any gaps are flagged automatically, and you’ll get suggestions for corrective actions. If you ever need a formal on-site audit, we can connect you with a qualified assessor and seamlessly transfer your evidence to them.

PCI DSS isn’t just a one-time exercise. Maintaining compliance means continual patching, periodic vulnerability scans, staff training, and incident response planning.

How Bento Helps:

• Bento Assurance HQ sends automated reminders for patch cycles, verifies firewall configurations, and helps track audit logs.

• Cybersecurity Management: Our team or your own IT staff can manage your day-to-day security posture.

• Compliance Automation: Evidence collection, updated policies, and new configurations are all tracked in real time, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

Law is an industry built on trust. Demonstrating that your firm not only protects privileged information but also handles payments in a secure, standards-compliant manner can be a differentiator. Clients feel more confident knowing you invest in security and compliance.

How Bento Helps:
We provide clear, professional reporting that you can share with clients or external stakeholders, showing that your systems meet recognized security benchmarks. It’s proof of your professionalism and diligence—something your clients will appreciate.

• Integrated Approach: We unify IT management, cybersecurity, and compliance in one seamless framework.

• Based on NIST CSF: Bento’s controls library merges the best of NIST with PCI, ensuring robust security from every angle.

• Automation & Simplicity: Through Bento Assurance HQ, you gain automated tracking, streamlined evidence gathering, and real-time compliance dashboards.

• Expert Guidance: Our seasoned professionals are on hand to help you translate PCI mandates into day-to-day operations.

Ready to Secure Your Firm’s Payments?
Navigating PCI DSS requirements doesn’t have to be stressful. With the right strategy—and a little help from Bento Security—your law firm can confidently accept credit cards, stay compliant, and maintain a strong cybersecurity posture. Reach out today to see how we can simplify compliance while boosting overall security. Together, we’ll safeguard both your clients’ payments and your firm’s reputation.

Which one are you?

1. No direct credit card handling

   • If you have a fully hosted payment portal or a third-party tool that manages all payment details (and your systems never see the card data), you’d likely qualify for SAQ A.

2. In-office card acceptance

   • If you have a standalone point-of-sale (POS) terminal in the office, and it’s dial-up or IP-based, you may be SAQ B (dial-up) or SAQ B-IP (IP-based).

3. Virtual terminal

   • If you simply log into a secure website to type in card info manually (for example, taking a retainer by phone and keying card data into a web portal), that can be SAQ C-VT, assuming you do not store any card data.

1. SAQ A

   • Eligibility: Card data functions are entirely outsourced to validated third parties (e.g., a hosted checkout page).

   • No handling of card data on your own systems or premises.

   • Applies primarily to e-commerce or mail/telephone-order merchants who fully outsource payment processing.

2. SAQ A-EP

   • Eligibility: E-commerce merchants who have a website that can affect the security of the payment transaction but who do not receive cardholder data directly on their website (i.e., redirection or iframe).

   • You partially outsource to a validated third party, but some e-commerce components remain under your control (e.g., your web server).

3. SAQ B

   • Eligibility: Imprint-only merchants or those with standalone, dial-up terminals (i.e., not IP-connected).

   • No electronic cardholder data storage.

4. SAQ B-IP

   • Eligibility: Standalone point-of-interaction (POI) devices that connect via IP to the processor.

   • No electronic cardholder data storage and no other systems in scope.

5. SAQ C

   • Eligibility: Merchants with payment application systems connected to the Internet; no electronic data storage of cardholder data.

6. SAQ C-VT

   • Eligibility: Merchants who use only a browser-based, virtual payment terminal solution provided by a PCI-compliant third party; all card data is keyed directly into the secure web portal.

   • No electronic cardholder data storage.

7. SAQ P2PE

   • Eligibility: Merchants who use a PCI SSC–listed point-to-point encryption solution (P2PE).

8. SAQ D

   • “Catch-all” for merchants who don’t fit one of the above scenarios, or for any service providers.