TORONTO & ATLANTA -- Another piece of the puzzle for high-security dataflow has come together as a firm that does "tokenization" or encoding of credit-card numbers integrates with solutions involved in PIN-pad communications and transaction processing.
Convenience store operators, like many retailers across channels, have been struggling with mandates from various credit-card companies and options to increasing the security of data passing through their registers.
AJB Software Design Inc., Toronto, a supplier of integrated payment solutions, and First Data Corp., Atlanta, a provider of electronic commerce and payment processing, has announced that the First Data "TransArmor"data security solution is now integrated within AJB's payment processing application suite.
Close to 230,000 U.S. merchants, combining for nearly a half-billion transactions to date, are processing transactions more securely using the TransArmor "tokenization" solution, the companies stated.
AJB's integration of the TransArmor solution provides retailers with an easy way to achieve a stronger level of security within their payment card acceptance environment, company officials said in a statement. It enables complete, end-to-end encryption with the option of tokenization--the ability to take a credit card number and turn it into an unreadable data element--from point of card swipe to formatting and routing of data to the financial institution.
Merchants can now take advantage of a multi-layered security solution that eliminates clear-text cardholder data and other sensitive data elements from the retail environment, accommodating closely related actions including reconciliation, chargebacks and loyalty awards, said officials.
By implementing tokenization, retailers can reduce their scope of responsibility for mandates such as the ones put forth by San Francisco-based Visa and other major credit-card companies,said Pat Polillo, vice president of sales for AJB.
"[Such activity] reduces scope for any audit and will save money," Polillo told CSP Daily News. "We're a Canadian-based company and the country has already gone through [an advanced] upgrade. Those retailers are coming back and layering tokenization on top of that. They do see value to it."
AJB's payment processing suite includes Flexible Integrated Payment System (FIPay) and Retail Transaction Switch (RTS). The FIPay application isresponsible for integrating the PIN pad device into First Data's TransArmor solution. RTS is a multi-purpose transaction switch that provides real-time authorization for TransArmor transactions.
"Our products have proven to be flexible, stable and scalable solutions for Tier 1 retailers," said Polillo. "We make it easy for retailers to adapt to new technologies. Whether it's integrating with the leading POS companies, supporting the most current hardware devices, or helping retailers migrate to new security demands by market forces, such as 'chip and PIN,' and end-to-end encryption and tokenization using TransArmor; AJB and First Data have proven to be the reliable choice for retailers."
AJB is a provider of payment integration software solutions. Founded in 1994, AJB has over 140 global clients, and its software is installed at more than 250,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals. AJB helps connect the components required for real-time payment processing. It enables retailers to comply with new standards and payment types. In addition, AJB allows banks and POS vendors to easily integrate their products with retailers, petroleum and c-stores. AJB aids in integration with existing systems.
First Data is a payment processing company with a portfolio of processing involvement including debit or credit card, gift card, check or mobile phone, online or at the checkout counter.
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