A company that _______________ is considered to be a service provider.

• A. Controls or could impact the security of another entity's cardholder data
• B. Is a founding member of PCI SSC
• C. Is a payment card brand
• D. Is not also a merchant

Answer: (A)

In PCI DSS terms, a service provider is any entity that processes, stores, or transmits cardholder data on behalf of another organization, or could affect the security of that data for another entity. So a company that controls or could impact the security of another entity’s cardholder data fits this role because its actions or systems can influence how that data is protected, even if it doesn’t directly process the data itself. This is the core idea: the focus is on the potential to affect the security of someone else’s cardholder data. The other options miss that focus—being a founding member of PCI SSC is about governance, not about handling or influencing cardholder data; being a payment card brand is a network that issues or processes cards, not a service provider; and not also being a merchant doesn’t define service-provider status.