October 27, 2009
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Heartland on E3 end-to-end encryption, Pt.2
What's happening in the industry.When asked if the industry has made any headway in standardizing debit and credit card payment processing, Steven Elefant, CIO Heartland Payment Systems Inc, indicated that the industry goals remain the same, however, there is much debate on the best system. According to Elefant, Heartland's E3 end-to-end is a truly complete process. Unlike other systems, E3 provides complete security of customers' personal information and credit card information from the time the card is swiped through its entire journey to the banks. Some companies claim their debit and credit card payments systems are end-to-end, but in fact they are really a point-to-point system.
When Heartland took a closer look at these other debit and credit card payment processing systems which claim to be end-to-end encryption, they found some concerning differences. In other systems, they discovered that the customer's information was secure from either the terminal to the store controller or the store controller to another gateway. According to Elefant, these systems are actually a point-to-point and don't really offer the full end-to-end protection of the E3. It is this shortfall of other systems that make them vulnerable to hackers who search for the weak links. On the other hand, the E3 system protects debit and credit card data as it travels through the terminals, the entire processing system, and to its final destination.
When asked if an end-to-end encryption system is truly possible in view of the fact that debit and credit card information must at some time be decrypted, Elefant focused on the industry's goal to secure information from the beginning to the end of the transaction. He acknowledges, however, that the end card issuers must decrypt the information. Elefant maintains that the card networks and issuers maintain their own security which has offered some challenges. In spite of these challenges, these companies have been proficient in dealing with them. To learn the status of the E3 program you won't want to miss Part 3.