A service provider or merchant may use a third-party service to store, process, or transmit cardholder
data on their behalf, or to manage CDE components. Parties should clearly identify the services and
system components that are included in the scope of the service provider’s annual onsite PCI DSS
assessment, the specific PCI DSS requirements covered by the service provider, and any requirements
which are the responsibility of the service provider’s customers to include in their own PCI DSS reviews.
If the third party undergoes their own PCI DSS assessment, they should provide sufficient evidence to
their customers to verify that the scope of the service provider’s PCI DSS assessment covered the services
applicable to the customer and that the relevant PCI DSS requirements were examined and determined
to be in place. The service provider Attestation of Compliance for PCI DSS v3.0 includes a table that
summarizes PCI DSS requirements covered and the specific service(s) assessed, and can be provided to
customers as evidence of the scope of a service provider’s PCI DSS assessment. However, the specific
type of evidence provided by the service provider to their customers will depend on the agreements/
contracts in place between those parties. Merchants and service providers must manage and monitor
the PCI DSS compliance of all associated third-party service providers with access to cardholder data