Benefits of NCR Secure Pay
Without P2PE Hardware
NCR Secure Pay offers added security even when it is employed without Point-to-Point Encrypting (P2PE) Hardware.
Tokenization
The way card information is stored in your retail location is a key component of security. You need to ensure that you are storing cardholder information securely at all locations in your retail environment.
NCR Secure Pay utilizes tokenization, which is the most secure method of credit card data storage, also known as a token replacement. Tokenization allows NCR Counterpoint to store a token instead of an actual card number. If your system were breached, unauthorized users would only find the token information and not the actual card information, which is stored in a token vault hosted by NCR. With
the token, you can access the transaction information as needed for returns and other operations, including a card on file billing, while maintaining a secure system.
Host-Based Settlement
NCR Secure Pay uses host-based settlement, which stores transaction information at NCR’s host, rather than your NCR Counterpoint installation, until settlement. This provides flexibility allowing a settlement to be easily automated from the host or initiated from any web browser by using the NCR Secure Pay merchant portal.
In addition, with a host-based settlement, POS workstations running in “offline” mode can are still able to settle their transactions. This is a great benefit when offline workstations are disconnected for an extended period, such as during large upgrades.
With P2PE Hardware
Point-to-Point Encryption
Transmission of cardholder data between your system and the payment processor can be an area of a weakness that cyber payment criminals target.
To get an approval from a credit processor, card information must travel from the MSR (card reader) through the Point of Sale (POS) application and operating system (OS) to an application which communicates with the credit processor in order to get an authorization. Most systems pass the card data from the MSR unencrypted through the OS to the POS application and encrypt before sending the
approval communication to the credit processor.
With the addition of P2PE Hardware, NCR Secure Pay enables you to encrypt directly by the MSR hardware at the time the card is swiped, rather than solely during the transmission to the credit processor. The encryption happens in the hardware on the MSR device, not inside your NCR Counterpoint system and unencrypted data never exists on your POS network. This ensures sensitive cardholder information is encrypted throughout its lifecycle in your environment, limiting your risk of an unauthorized user scraping that data from memory.
Benefits of NCR Secure Pay
Another difference worth noting with P2PE as compared to traditional encryption is that the encryption and decryption processes use different keys. Even if you have the encrypting key, you can’t decrypt the data because the key to unlock the data is not the same. When using P2PE with NCR Secure Pay, the decryption key does not exist in the store environment, again reducing the risk that sensitive data could
be stolen from the system.
Contact CCS Retail Systems to get started with your NCR Secure Pay Systems.
Marilyn.