The mandate for Payment Card Industry (PCI) security compliance got attention this week from Akamai and IBM, as each promised new services oriented toward helping companies through the PCI audit process.

Akamai said that at the beginning of the first quarter next year, it will make available online reports of Web scans that Akamai must periodically carry out to stay in compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) after undergoing a PCI audit by the Verizon Business Cybertrust unit, a certified security assessor for PCI.

Pedro Santos, senior product marketing manager at Akamai, said making the periodic Akamai PCI-related reports available will assist companies handling credit cards that are now being asked by banks and the card associations, such as Visa and MasterCard, to use PCI-compliant service providers.

"We'll provide the results of the scans through a Web interface," said Santos, adding the PCI reports service, which will be made available under Akamai's Dynamic Site Acceleration offering, has not been priced.

IBM also is seeking to draw attention to its role as both a QSA and a certified PCI scanning service. Today, IBM said it is organizing its professional services to support a five-phase program for preparing enterprises to undergo a PCI audit successfully.

"This is mainly oriented toward the small- and mid-sized customers getting into the PCI audit process," said Kris Lovejoy, director of governance and risk management at IBM.

IBM's five-phase program looks at the area of assessment, to determine where remediation might be required; design, for establishing security strategy and policies; deployment, for product deployment; management, in which IBM would offer security monitoring and management software, as well as staff and emergency response and forensics analysis; and education, which involves product courses, training and awareness for customers regarding PCI compliance over the long term.

Lovejoy, who said IBM itself hasn't gone through a PCI audit, would be recommending both IBM products and other vendor products when appropriate.