Which of the following is a PCI DSS role?

• A. PCI Auditor
• B. Compliance Officer
• C. QSA - Qualified Security Assessor
• D. Security Analyst

Answer: (C)

Understanding PCI DSS roles means recognizing who is authorized to perform official assessments under PCI SSC guidance. The role defined for conducting formal PCI DSS assessments is the QSA—the Qualified Security Assessor. A QSA is a professional certified by the PCI Security Standards Council to evaluate an organization’s security controls against the PCI DSS requirements, gather evidence, interview personnel, and produce the Report on Compliance (RoC) for merchants and service providers. This designation represents the official, recognized role used during formal PCI DSS attestations, ensuring the assessment is conducted to the council’s standards and methods.

Other titles like PCI Auditor, Compliance Officer, or Security Analyst describe legitimate job functions, but they are not official PCI DSS designations required for the formal assessment process. A Compliance Officer or Security Analyst might be involved in security work or internal compliance, but they do not carry the formal certification and credentials that a QSA holds to perform PCI DSS assessments and issue RoCs. There is also the related but separate role of Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) for external vulnerability scanning, which is part of PCI DSS scanning programs but not the formal assessment role.