Six purpose-built pillars that take you from your first SAQ to a year-round compliance operation. No consultant required. No enterprise budget needed.
PCI DSS v4.0.1 is a year-round obligation, not an annual checkbox. PCINexus tracks every deadline automatically — so nothing expires quietly in the background while you're running a business.
Between quarterly scans, annual pen tests, daily log reviews, and recurring training obligations, a small business has dozens of active PCI DSS deadlines running simultaneously. Miss one and your compliance status is in jeopardy. PCINexus surfaces all of them in a single view — with alerts before they lapse.
Every compliance gap is a project. PCINexus treats it that way — assigning findings to owners, tracking remediation progress, and generating the documentation trail your auditor needs to see.
A QSA or an internal review will surface findings — requirements that aren't fully met, evidence that doesn't satisfy the standard, or controls that need to be implemented. Without a structured tracker, those findings get written down somewhere and forgotten. PCINexus turns every finding into an assigned, tracked, accountable work item.
You don't need a $50,000 security stack to be PCI DSS compliant. PCINexus integrates with the tools your business can actually afford — pulling evidence automatically so compliance doesn't require a dedicated IT team.
Our philosophy on vendor tools:
PCI DSS does not require expensive tools — it requires effective controls. Every integration in PCINexus was selected because it satisfies a specific PCI DSS requirement at the lowest possible cost. Open-source and free tools are always recommended first. Mid-market and enterprise tools are listed for organizations that already have them — never pushed as the default.
PCINexus connects to your security tools via API, agent, or syslog and pulls raw data on demand or on a schedule you control.
Every data pull is presented for human review — mapped to its specific PCI DSS requirement with a plain-English summary of what was found.
Only after explicit approval does data enter your compliance record. Nothing is auto-accepted. Your evidence trail stays clean and auditable.
Pulls firewall ruleset, interface config, and traffic logs. PCINexus maps rules against Req 1.2 requirements and flags missing deny-all defaults or undocumented rules.
Pulls firewall policy, FortiGuard threat logs, and configuration backup. Full Req 1 evidence package generated automatically from the API connection.
Any network device — router, switch, firewall — that supports syslog can feed PCINexus directly. Covers Req 1 and Req 10 simultaneously with zero additional tooling.
DNS filtering and zero-trust network access. Pulls DNS query logs and blocked domain records for Req 1 perimeter evidence. Free tier covers most small merchant environments.
Self-hosted DNS blocker. Pulls query logs and blocklist status to demonstrate DNS-level malware protection for Req 1 network defense evidence.
VPN access logs pulled for Req 8 remote access evidence. Demonstrates encrypted tunnels for all remote administrative access to the CDE.
Already on every Windows machine. Pulls real-time protection status, last scan timestamp, threat detection history, and policy settings for Req 5 evidence with zero additional cost.
Antivirus for Linux-based POS systems, servers, and appliances. Pulls scan results and definition update status for Req 5 evidence on non-Windows endpoints.
For organizations already running Falcon. Pulls endpoint telemetry, threat intelligence, and detection events directly into Req 5 and Req 11 evidence records.
Full internal vulnerability scanner with no per-scan fees. PCINexus pulls scan reports, CVE findings, and remediation status directly into Req 6 and Req 11.3 evidence records.
Industry gold-standard scanner, free for up to 16 IPs. Covers the entire CDE for most small merchants. Auditors know the name immediately — high-credibility evidence source.
Cloud-managed scanning for organizations that prefer not to run their own scanner. Pulls scan reports, asset inventory, and patch status directly into PCINexus compliance records.
Pulls user accounts, groups, stale accounts, password policy, and OU structure. Full Req 7 and Req 8 evidence package — account inventory, access groups, and policy compliance in one pull.
Pulls MFA enrollment status, authentication logs, and policy configuration. Req 8.4 requires MFA for all CDE access — Duo provides the evidence automatically.
Self-hosted SSO and MFA gateway — no per-user fees. Pulls authentication events and policy config for Req 8 evidence. Best option for businesses with more than 10 users who can't afford Duo.
Password manager with auditable vault. Pulls policy enforcement status and shared credential records to demonstrate Req 8.3 password management controls.
RADIUS authentication server for network access control. Pulls authentication logs and policy data — demonstrates MFA enforcement for network device and VPN access under Req 8.
Central SIEM platform. Aggregates logs from every system, correlates events, and generates alerts. PCINexus pulls daily log review summaries and alert records directly for Req 10 evidence.
Bundles Wazuh + Suricata + Zeek into a single deployable stack. One install covers Req 10 and Req 11 completely. PCINexus pulls consolidated event data from the Security Onion API.
Network and system monitoring with alerting. Pulls uptime records, threshold alerts, and device availability logs for Req 10 continuity-of-monitoring evidence.
Easiest-to-configure monitor on the list. Free tier covers most small environments. Pulls device status, bandwidth data, and alert history for Req 10 network monitoring evidence.
Auto-discovers your network and monitors every device on it. Pulls network device logs, SNMP traps, and alert history into PCINexus for Req 10 continuous monitoring evidence.
Any device that can push syslog feeds directly into PCINexus. Zero additional tooling — if it logs, it connects. Covers any gap in your environment the dedicated tools don't reach.
High-performance IDS/IPS. Pulls network intrusion alerts, signature matches, and anomaly events directly into Req 11.4 evidence records. Runs inline or passive — no disruption to operations.
The original network IDS — massive rule library, auditor-recognized name. Pulls detection events and rule match logs for Req 11.4 intrusion detection evidence.
Network traffic analysis framework. Produces detailed connection logs, protocol summaries, and behavioral baselines that feed directly into Req 11 anomaly detection evidence.
File Integrity Monitoring built into Wazuh. Detects unauthorized changes to critical system files — required under Req 11.5. If you're already running Wazuh, FIM is already active.
Dedicated Linux file integrity monitor. Tracks changes to system binaries, config files, and CDE-relevant directories. Pulls change reports into Req 11.5 FIM evidence records.
Bundles Suricata + Zeek + Wazuh together. One deployment covers Req 10 log management and Req 11 intrusion detection simultaneously — the most efficient single tool for full coverage.
Access control is one of the most scrutinized areas in any PCI DSS audit. PCINexus connects directly to your Active Directory — pulling users, groups, policies, and access data with full review before anything is imported.
Requirements 7 and 8 of PCI DSS v4.0.1 require demonstrating that access to cardholder data is restricted, that accounts are managed, that passwords meet policy, and that stale accounts are removed. Most businesses have this data in their Active Directory — but no way to pull it into a compliance record systematically. PCINexus does exactly that.
PCINexus puts the equivalent of a PCI DSS specialist on your team — available 24 hours a day, at no extra cost. Two AI tools that work together to accelerate your path to compliance.
The two most common compliance problems for small businesses are (1) not knowing what evidence an auditor actually needs, and (2) submitting documents that don't satisfy the requirement. Both are expensive problems. The AI Evidence Review engine addresses both — instantly, on every upload, before you submit anything.
The document describes firewall rules but does not include justification for each rule as required by Req 1.2.1. Add a business justification column to the rule table and resubmit.
Inbound and outbound traffic rules are documented with deny-all defaults confirmed. Satisfies network segmentation evidence requirement.
Enterprise compliance tools were priced for enterprise budgets. The businesses that need PCI DSS compliance the most — independent restaurants, regional retailers, small hospitality groups — were never the intended customer. PCINexus was built specifically for them.
The math is straightforward. A QSA-assisted compliance program for a small merchant runs $3,000–$8,000 per year with no ongoing management platform and no evidence trail you own.
PCINexus replaces that with a purpose-built system at a fraction of the cost — and gives you something the consultant never could: a running compliance record your business owns, year after year.
The full platform is running live. Walk through a real compliance workflow for a multi-location restaurant group — no login required.