Preventing Card Data Exposure in Customer Support: PCI DSS Compliance with Isara

Every day, customer support teams handle payment-related questions — refunds, billing issues, subscription renewals, and charge disputes. In those interactions, customers often share credit card details or other sensitive payment information. That makes your support channels part of your cardholder data environment (CDE) under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

While most organisations secure their payment gateways and checkout systems, support operations are frequently overlooked. Yet a single ticket containing full card numbers or CVV codes can create serious exposure — not only violating PCI DSS requirements but also risking data breaches and reputational damage.

Isara helps organisations close this gap by auditing support tickets for compliance with PCI DSS, identifying where payment information appears, and helping teams demonstrate adherence to card-data protection standards.

Why PCI DSS applies to customer support

The PCI DSS framework, maintained by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, sets mandatory controls for any organisation that processes, stores, or transmits cardholder data. These controls include:

• Building and maintaining secure systems and networks.

• Protecting cardholder data wherever it resides.

• Maintaining a vulnerability management program.

• Implementing strong access control measures.

• Regularly monitoring and testing networks.

• Maintaining an information security policy.

Customer support sits squarely in the “protect cardholder data” and “access control” categories. Even if your payment processing infrastructure is compliant, exposing card data in ticket systems can break compliance across the entire organisation.

Common problem areas include:

• Customers typing full card numbers (PANs) or CVV codes into chat messages or email threads.

• Support staff copying billing information into notes or spreadsheets.

• Tickets with screenshots of payment forms or statements stored unencrypted.

• Retention of old tickets containing card data long past their relevance.

PCI DSS requires that no unmasked cardholder data be stored in logs, support tickets, or communications systems. Without active monitoring, it’s easy for this requirement to be missed.

The challenge of manual detection

Traditional helpdesk systems such as Zendesk, Intercom, or HubSpot offer security features, but they aren’t designed to detect or report card data exposure. Manual searches for 16-digit patterns or keywords are error-prone and unsustainable at scale.

Even a single instance of unredacted card data can trigger audit findings or financial penalties. For compliance leaders, the question isn’t whether your team means well — it’s whether you can prove control effectiveness.

That’s why many organisations are now turning to automated audit tools like Isara.

How Isara helps you stay PCI DSS compliant

Isara allows compliance and security teams to audit support tickets for cardholder data exposure and PCI DSS compliance.

Using advanced AI and pattern-recognition models, Isara scans support conversations within your existing systems — such as Intercom, Zendesk, and HubSpot — to identify:

• Potential Primary Account Numbers (PANs) or other payment card fields.

• Partial or full card data appearing in message text, attachments, or metadata.

• Sensitive combinations (e.g. PAN + expiry date) that increase risk.

• Retention violations, where historical tickets may store card details.

Audits can be run across chosen time periods (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) to detect issues, measure improvement, and support PCI DSS documentation requirements.

Isara’s output gives compliance officers clear visibility into exposure areas, helping prioritise remediation and training initiatives before audit season.

Mapping Isara to PCI DSS requirements

PCI DSS RequirementHow Isara Supports Compliance3.2 – Do not store sensitive authentication data after authorisationDetects cardholder data stored in tickets and flags violations.3.3 – Mask PAN when displayedIdentifies unmasked card numbers in communications or attachments.3.4 – Render PAN unreadable anywhere it is storedProvides evidence that tickets containing PANs are redacted or removed.7.1 – Limit access to cardholder dataHelps confirm that sensitive data isn’t distributed beyond authorised personnel.10.2 – Implement audit trailsSupports periodic audit reporting and accountability for support operations.

By aligning directly to these requirements, Isara strengthens your ability to prove compliance across the entire customer-interaction lifecycle.

Seamless integration and secure operation

Isara integrates directly with your existing support tools via official marketplace apps. Once installed, audits can be launched within your environment — with no data exports or external file transfers.

This ensures:

• Security: Cardholder data remains inside your controlled systems.

• Simplicity: Audits are initiated in minutes with minimal configuration.

• Continuity: No disruption to ongoing customer service operations.

Because Isara works where your support data already resides, it complements your existing PCI DSS controls without adding complexity.

From compliance validation to continuous improvement

PCI DSS compliance is a moving target. New card brands, data formats, and business processes constantly evolve, making static compliance reviews insufficient.

Isara helps you adopt a proactive approach:

• Schedule periodic audits to continuously monitor ticket data for cardholder information.

• Quantify progress by tracking reductions in exposure over time.

• Document oversight to support QSA (Qualified Security Assessor) reviews.

• Identify training needs where agents or workflows show repeated patterns of risk.

With Isara, compliance becomes part of your operational rhythm — not a last-minute audit scramble.

Reducing financial and reputational risk

Non-compliance with PCI DSS can lead to heavy fines, increased transaction fees, or even suspension of card-processing privileges. But beyond financial penalties, the loss of customer trust following a card-data exposure can be devastating.

By using Isara to identify and remove risky data, you reduce the likelihood of incidents before they occur. You can demonstrate to partners, acquirers, and auditors that your organisation is committed to protecting payment information across every channel — not just at checkout.

This capability is currently available for early access and private demos as we prepare for public release. Compliance and security teams participating in early access are already seeing how automated ticket audits help reinforce PCI DSS control effectiveness and simplify audit preparation.

Build payment-data trust with Isara

PCI DSS compliance isn’t just a technical obligation — it’s a promise to your customers that their financial information is safe. Isara helps you make that promise tangible.

By auditing support communications for cardholder data exposure, you can maintain compliance, reduce audit stress, and strengthen your overall security posture.

Get in touch today to request a demo and see how Isara helps you prevent card-data leaks, streamline PCI DSS audits, and protect customer trust at scale.