With data breaches rampant throughout retail, the introduction of Intel’s Data Protection Technology for Transactions is well timed to target brands in need of added security.
Intel introduced the new technology this week and said it is the industry’s first solution to provide end-to-end encryption of consumer and financial data built into point of sale (POS) platforms.
“It’s never been more important, or more difficult, for retailers to manage and protect data across the payment ecosystem,” Karen Webster, CEO of Market Platform Dynamics said. “Intel’s Data Protection Technology for Transactions security architecture does the obvious thing – it separates transaction processing from the POS – making that data less accessible and therefore more likely to be out of the reach of hackers. That can only help give both retailers and consumers more confidence that their POS experience is secure.”
Intel partnered with NCR, a leader in consumer transaction technologies, to create the protective solution, which creates a secure pathway between POS systems and server networks to carry consumer information securely. It also establishes a secure pipeline through which retailers can request payment authorization and provides a common security management capability regardless of the original POS of peripheral vendor.
The Data Protection Technology supports all standard and modern credit and debit payment types including EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa), magnetic stripe and near filed communication (NFC) transaction readers like Google Wallet, Apple Pay and Softcard, and works with all retail POS systems that have select Intel processors in their retail POS networks, including tablets.
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Major retailers have been hit with sizable security breaches steadily over the last year, and Kmart was the latest to suffer the blow announcing last week that its store payment data system had been breached, and that consumers’ debit and credit card numbers were compromised. Target suffered a similar security breach last holiday season when hackers accessed 40 million customers’ credit and debit card data, and personal identification information from as many as 70 million others. Home Depot also announced last month that roughly 56 million customer credit cards may have been compromised in a 5-month long attack on its systems.
According to an Intel statement, “This new Intel technology builds flexibility into data protection, helping merchants shift resources used to deal with security issues to improving the customer satisfaction and purchasing experience.”
The client software is available now, and the full solution based on Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions will be available to retailers in the first half of 2015.
Chris Lybeer, vice president of Strategic Development at NCR, said, “Consumers and retailers need solutions that help narrow the risk of information making its way into the wrong hands,” said “NCR and Intel recognized the need to add a new level of security into transactional systems. With Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions, in conjunction with NCR DataGuard, all important data from consumer information to payments to confidential business information are shielded from possible misuse.”