Episode 5 — Distinguish merchants versus service providers without hesitation

Many misses on the exam stem from confusing who is the merchant and who is the service provider, especially in cloud and embedded-payment scenarios. This episode sharpens the distinction: a merchant accepts card payments for goods or services; a service provider stores, processes, transmits, or can impact the security of cardholder data on behalf of another entity. We translate that into reliable tests you can apply to any scenario: who sells to the cardholder, who operates controls that protect payment data for others, and who issues attestation to whom. You will also see how contractual language, attestations of compliance, and responsibility matrices reveal the correct role classification even when marketing labels blur the picture.We explore realistic arrangements—payment gateways, managed service platforms, web hosting with script injection risk, and in-store vendors servicing POS devices—and show how role clarity drives requirement paths, reporting forms, and evidence handoffs. Best practices include requiring written agreements that fix security responsibilities, insisting on current AOC/AoV artifacts from providers, and mapping operational changes (like a new integration) to role impact. Troubleshooting advice covers ambiguous cases such as marketplaces and “white-label” solutions: when a platform both accepts payments and provides payment services, separate the merchant function from provider obligations and trace who attests what. With these habits, you will quickly categorize actors in question stems, select answers that align with PCI’s definitions, and avoid the cascade of errors that follow a mistaken role assumption. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

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