Everything You Need to Know About Payment Security

According to cybersecurity firm Carbon Black, up to 88% of UK companies have suffered breaches in the last 12 months. Payment technology advancements have made purchasing goods and services faster and more convenient than ever before, but the payment security requirements that businesses must adhere to have never been higher. 

For businesses, here are seven core components that ensure payment security:

Encryption

Encryption is a technique for hiding information in a string of codes that appears as random data and is difficult to decode. It is one of the most important technologies for ensuring the safety and security of data transmission.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certification

According to SSL Pulse, a global dashboard for tracking the quality of SSL support, 59.4% of websites are not secure. An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website and encrypts the connection at the same time. If you’re processing or transmitting sensitive data (such as credit card numbers), an SSL certificate is a must, as it protects your consumers from hackers and fraudsters.

Tokenization

Tokenization adds an extra degree of security to client payment data protection and turns payment data into a random string of integers. This tokenized data would be entirely meaningless and useless if a hacker had access to it. For the utmost security, it is recommended to use a payment gateway that supports tokenized transactions.

3DS 

3D Secure is currently only used for transactions that the cardholder’s bank considers to be “high risk”. Customers will be asked to supply additional information to establish that the cardholder is the one completing the transaction; this is privileged information that should only be known by the cardholder, and the process takes place on the bank’s website, not yours.

Address Verification Service (AVS)

You can also employ an AVS, which is a security feature that prevents fraudulent debit and credit card transactions. The tool checks whether the cardholder’s billing address matches the one connected with the card. The credit card processor sends the merchant a response code that indicates whether or not the transaction should be authorised.

Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

2FA provides a more advanced level of security. This permission is typically used when creating a new account. It gives two separate authentication factors to validate oneself, such as security questions, SMS messages, OTPs, push alerts, and so on.

PCI Compliance

PCI DSS is a set of regulations created by major payment card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and JCB, necessitating organisations to comply with general data security requirements that every merchant needs to follow. Any merchant who seeks to process, store, or transmit credit card data is required to be PCI compliant, according to the PCI Compliance Security Standard Council.

According to a Verizon report, even though the PCI DSS was launched in 2004, just 36.7% of organizations were actively maintaining compliance programs until 2018, which is a major concern. While getting compliance on your own is tedious and time-consuming, it is advisable that merchants work with payment providers that cover all PCI issues, to ensure efficiency and peace of mind.

At FLR Spectron, we help you obtain PCI compliance that is cost-effective, straightforward, and quick, while protecting your business against credit card theft and data breaches involving cardholders. To minimise fraudulent payments and data breaches, it’s critical to process secure online transactions and payments. Learn more about our solutions at https://flrs.co.uk/telecoms/secure-phone-payments/.