Achieving PCI DSS compliance is often viewed as a regulatory hurdle. For this scaling SaaS company, it became a catalyst for building a robust, security-first culture, and preventing potential breaches.
The Client
A high-growth B2B SaaS company processing millions of transactions annually.
The Challenge: More Than a Compliance Checkbox
The client needed a PCI-compliant status to maintain their business operations and customer trust. However, they recognized that a simple “pass” wasn’t enough. They needed confidence that their entire digital ecosystem—the foundation of their business—was truly secure.
Their attack surface was complex:
- AWS Cloud Infrastructure: Featuring hundreds of EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and RDS databases.
- Customer-Facing Web Application: The primary interface for user transactions.
- Mobile Application (iOS/Android): Handling sensitive customer data on-device.
- Critical API Layer: The communication backbone between all front-end and back-end services.
A vulnerability in any of these layers could lead to a data breach, non-compliance fines, and irreparable brand damage.
Our Solution: A Full-Scope Security Assessment
We moved beyond a tick-box exercise and executed a comprehensive offensive security engagement:
- Cloud Infrastructure Penetration Test: We assessed their AWS environment for misconfigurations, insecure IAM roles, and weak network security controls.
- Web & Mobile Application Assessment: Our team performed black-box and gray-box testing against their web and mobile apps, focusing on business logic flaws and OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities.
- API Security Testing: We rigorously tested their API endpoints for broken object-level authorization (BOLA), excessive data exposure, and mass assignment vulnerabilities.
📈 The Results: Secure, Compliant, and Confident
Our collaboration delivered tangible, business-critical outcomes:
- Critical Vulnerabilities Identified & Remediated: We provided a detailed report prioritizing risks, including a critical authentication bypass in their web app and a misconfigured S3 bucket exposing sensitive logs.
- Successful PCI DSS Certification: The client not only passed their required PCI audit but did so with confidence, having already addressed the technical vulnerabilities that often cause failures.
- Ongoing Partnership: We provided tailored remediation support, working side-by-side with their developers until all findings were resolved, turning our report into a actionable security roadmap.
The CISO shared this feedback: “Hacker Simulations LLC helped us identify and address potential vulnerabilities in our systems through a thorough penetration test. Their work gave us confidence in the security of our infrastructure, ensuring that sensitive information is better protected and that our compliance requirements are met. As a result, we can operate with greater peace of mind and focus on our core business without worrying about hidden security gaps.”
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