PCI DSS v3.2 SAQ C-VT, Rev. 1.1 January 2017
© 2006-2017 PCI Security Standards Council, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Page iii
Before You Begin
SAQ C-VT has been developed to address requirements applicable to merchants who process
cardholder data only via isolated virtual payment terminals on a personal computer connected to the
Internet.
A virtual payment terminal is web-browser-based access to an acquirer, processor, or third-party service
provider website to authorize payment card transactions, where the merchant manually enters payment
card data via a securely connected web browser. Unlike physical terminals, virtual payment terminals do
not read data directly from a payment card. Because payment card transactions are entered manually,
virtual payment terminals are typically used instead of physical terminals in merchant environments with
low transaction volumes.
SAQ C-VT merchants process cardholder data only via a virtual payment terminal and do not store
cardholder data on any computer system. These virtual terminals are connected to the Internet to access
a third party that hosts the virtual terminal payment-processing function. This third party may be a
processor, acquirer, or other third-party service provider who stores, processes, and/or transmits
cardholder data to authorize and/or settle merchants’ virtual terminal payment transactions.
This SAQ option is intended to apply only to merchants who manually enter a single transaction at a time
via a keyboard into an Internet-based virtual terminal solution. SAQ C-VT merchants may be brick-and-
mortar (card-present) or mail/telephone-order (card-not-present) merchants.
SAQ C-VT merchants confirm that, for this payment channel:
Your company’s only payment processing is via a virtual payment terminal accessed by an Internet-
connected web browser;
Your company’s virtual payment terminal solution is provided and hosted by a PCI DSS validated
third-party service provider;
Your company accesses the PCI DSS-compliant virtual payment terminal solution via a computer
that is isolated in a single location, and is not connected to other locations or systems within your
environment (this can be achieved via a firewall or network segmentation to isolate the computer
from other systems)
;
Your company’s computer does not have software installed that causes cardholder data to be
stored (for example, there is no software for batch processing or store-and-forward);
Your company’s computer does not have any attached hardware devices that are used to capture
or store cardholder data (for example, there are no card readers attached);
Your company does not otherwise receive or transmit cardholder data electronically through any
channels (for example, via an internal network or the Internet);
Any cardholder data your company retains is on paper (for example, printed reports or receipts),
and these documents are not received electronically; and
Your company does not store cardholder data in electronic format.
This SAQ is not applicable to e-commerce channels.
This criteria is not intended to prohibit more than one of the permitted system type (that is, a virtual payment
terminal accessed by an Internet-connected web browser) being on the same network zone, as long as the permitted
systems are isolated from other types of systems (e.g. by implementing network segmentation). Additionally, this
criteria is not intended to prevent the defined system type from being able to transmit transaction information to a
third party for processing, such as an acquirer or payment processor, over a network.