Third Party Service Provider

As defined in the PCI DSS and PA-DSS Glossary of Terms, Abbreviations, and Acronyms, a service provider is a business entity that is not a payment brand, directly involved in the processing, storage, or transmission of cardholder data on behalf of another entity. This also includes companies that provide services that control or could impact the security of cardholder data. There are many types of businesses that could fall into the category of “service provider,” dependent on the services provided. Most commonly, a TPSP could be a legally separate entity; but it can also be a separate business unit or component of the entity under assessment—for example, an internal service provider—where the provider is outside the direct management control of the entity assessed.