RSA Security has launched a new portfolio of solutions designed to enable firms to meet the challenge of compliance with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, and made new alliances with vendors in the space.

The RSA PCI Solution portfolio features professional services offerings as well as the firm's own products and those of new partners Qualys and nCircle, to enable merchants to meet the 12 criteria of the standard, which applies to all firms that store, process or transmit customer card details.

Part of the RSA blueprint includes a pre-assessment service that shows firms where they are not compliant and includes remediation processes, and there is also a card discovery element that helps merchants understand where cardholder data resides.

RSA products that can help firms fit the PCI requirements include Access Manager to restrict access to web-based resources, Database Security Manager to enable data encryption and Key Manager for encryption management, explained RSA's Tim Pickard.

"PCI compliance is driven by the card companies and it's starting to bite now – it's becoming more real for merchants," Pickard added. "Consumer confidence, brand, reputation and loyalty are also issues affecting merchants significantly – they don't want to be the next TJ Maxx."

RSA also announced a new online portal that will serve as a resource for firms, featuring white papers, podcasts and webcasts on the implications of PCI DSS.