Cyber Resilience Alignment Statement

How Paytia's PCI-DSS Level 1 controls align with the EU Cyber Resilience Act and international cyber resilience frameworks.

Our Approach to Cyber Resilience

Paytia recognises that cyber security is not just about prevention but also about resilience — the ability to withstand, respond to and recover from cyber incidents. Our approach aligns with the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) requirements.

The EU Cyber Resilience Act introduces mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements sold in the EU market. While primarily targeting hardware and software manufacturers, its principles of security-by-design and ongoing vulnerability management reflect the standards Paytia already maintains through PCI DSS Level 1 compliance.

Business Continuity

We maintain documented business continuity and disaster recovery plans that are tested regularly. Our platform is built on redundant infrastructure with automatic failover, ensuring service continuity even in the event of component failure. We target 99.99% uptime across all services.

Threat Intelligence

We actively monitor the threat landscape through industry intelligence feeds, participation in information-sharing communities and engagement with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). This enables us to anticipate emerging threats and adapt our defences accordingly.

Five pillars of cyber resilience

Our resilience framework is structured around five key pillars aligned with international standards.

1

Identify

Asset management, risk assessment, and threat intelligence inform our understanding of the security landscape and our exposure.

2

Protect

Access controls, encryption, security configuration, and staff training form multiple layers of defence around our platform.

3

Detect

Continuous monitoring, intrusion detection, log analysis, and anomaly detection enable rapid identification of potential threats.

4

Respond

Documented incident response procedures, communication plans, and forensic capabilities ensure swift and effective action.

5

Recover

Business continuity plans, disaster recovery procedures, and post-incident reviews ensure service restoration and continuous improvement.

EU Cyber Resilience Act alignment

How Paytia's existing security controls map to CRA essential requirements.

Security by Design

CRA Requirement

Products must be designed with appropriate cybersecurity measures from the outset.

Paytia Alignment

Paytia's platform is architected with security-first principles. DTMF masking, end-to-end encryption, and data isolation are fundamental design choices, not bolted-on features.

Vulnerability Handling

CRA Requirement

Manufacturers must have processes for handling vulnerabilities throughout the product lifecycle.

Paytia Alignment

Continuous vulnerability scanning, quarterly ASV scans, annual penetration testing, and a documented vulnerability disclosure process ensure ongoing security.

Security Updates

CRA Requirement

Products must support security updates for a defined period after placement on the market.

Paytia Alignment

As a cloud-hosted SaaS platform, all security patches are applied centrally and immediately, with zero action required from clients.

Incident Reporting

CRA Requirement

Actively exploited vulnerabilities and incidents must be reported to ENISA within 24 hours.

Paytia Alignment

Our incident response plan includes notification procedures aligned with both PCI DSS breach reporting and EU CRA incident reporting timelines.

Technical Documentation

CRA Requirement

Comprehensive technical documentation demonstrating conformity with essential requirements.

Paytia Alignment

Paytia maintains extensive documentation including PCI DSS ROC, AoC, system architecture, and security control descriptions available to clients and regulators.

Conformity Assessment

CRA Requirement

Products must undergo conformity assessment procedures appropriate to their risk category.

Paytia Alignment

Annual PCI DSS Level 1 assessment by an independent QSA provides the most rigorous third-party security validation available in the payments industry.

Secure development lifecycle

Paytia's Agile development process ensures that all software is designed, tested, and released securely and in line with CRA secure-by-design principles.

Development Management

All development activities are tracked in Asana, providing full visibility from initial requirement to final deployment.

Testing Stages

Each release passes through five distinct stages: Development, Development QA, Paytia QA Sign-off, Pre-Production Testing, and Live Roll-out.

Change Control

Zoho Help Desk manages and records all change requests, approvals, and release documentation, ensuring traceability and accountability.

Security by Design

Security reviews and automated checks are built into every stage of development. Vulnerability scans and quality gates prevent insecure code from reaching production.

This structured lifecycle ensures Paytia maintains continuous assurance of software integrity and compliance with both PCI DSS and CRA Annex I secure development requirements.

Maturity and continuous improvement

Paytia's commitment to continuous security enhancement and operational excellence.

Continuous Monitoring

24x7 managed detection and response by Fortra ensures real-time threat visibility.

Governance

The Security and Compliance team reviews daily alerts, weekly summaries, and monthly metrics.

Testing

Regular penetration testing and ASV scanning validate the resilience of all Paytia systems.

Documentation

All processes and evidence are maintained for PCI DSS audits and can serve as CRA technical documentation under Annex IV.

Standard operating procedure

External Authority Notification Workflow

Document Owner: Security and Compliance Manager

Approved By: Chief Information Security Officer

Version: 1.0

Effective Date: November 12, 2025

1. Purpose

This procedure defines how Paytia manages and escalates external authority notifications following a confirmed data breach or security incident. It ensures timely reporting to the relevant in-country authority within 72 hours, as required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

2. Scope

  • All Paytia-managed systems and services that process, store, or transmit customer or personal data.
  • All incidents classified as data breaches, security vulnerabilities, or active exploitation events.
  • All employees or third parties involved in incident management.

3. Roles and Responsibilities

Security Operations (SOC)

Detects, triages, and classifies potential data or security incidents. Initiates the Zoho workflow when a breach is confirmed.

Compliance Manager

Receives and manages the assigned 'External Notification' task. Ensures appropriate in-country authority is notified within 72 hours.

Incident Response Team (IRT)

Provides technical information and impact assessment for inclusion in the external report.

CISO

Approves final communication to regulatory authorities and oversees compliance with reporting timelines.

4. Procedure

4.1 Incident Classification

SOC identifies and logs a potential incident in Zoho. If investigation confirms a breach, the incident is escalated to the Compliance Manager with country of impact, affected systems, and classification.

4.2 Workflow Automation

Upon classification, Zoho automatically generates a task titled 'External Notification -- In-Country Authority', assigned to the Compliance Manager with a 72-hour deadline.

4.3 Escalation and Alerts

Reminder alerts are issued at 24, 48, and 70 hours if the task remains open. Unresolved tasks escalate automatically to the CISO.

4.4 External Notification

The Compliance Manager identifies the appropriate authority and submits the notification including company identification, breach description, affected systems, mitigation actions, and risk assessment.

4.5 Task Completion and Logging

On completion, the Compliance Manager updates the Zoho task status, attaches confirmation details, and all actions are recorded in the audit log for a minimum of five years.

5. Compliance Reference

  • EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — Articles 33 & 34
  • EU Cyber Resilience Act — Article 15 (Incident and Vulnerability Reporting)
  • Paytia Information Security Policy
  • Paytia Incident Response Plan

Recovery Capabilities

Our incident response and recovery procedures are designed to minimise downtime and data loss. We maintain regular backups, tested restoration procedures and clearly defined recovery time objectives. Post-incident reviews ensure that lessons are learned and defences are strengthened.

Continuous Improvement

Cyber resilience is not a one-time achievement. We conduct regular penetration testing, vulnerability assessments and security audits. Findings are fed back into our security programme to drive continuous improvement.

Supply Chain Security

The EU CRA places particular emphasis on supply chain security. Paytia manages its supply chain risk through vendor assessments, contractual security requirements, and continuous monitoring of third-party dependencies. Our PCI DSS Level 1 compliance requires formal management of all service providers that could affect the security of cardholder data.

For more information about our cyber resilience posture, contact security@paytia.com.

Security you can trust

Partner with a payment provider that aligns with the highest international cyber resilience standards.