Heartland Payment Systems Launches Payment Card Security Technology
CHICAGO -- Heartland Payment Systems launched its new, state-of-the-art payment card security technology to merchants and business owners nationwide. The company spent more than two years developing and 10 months beta testing and improving the end-to-end encryption technology called E3 -- designed to protect cardholder credit and debit card data, rendering scrambled data useless to cybercriminals, the company reported.
"Heartland leveraged its unique experience and knowledge to develop E3 -- and made the financial investment needed to protect this sensitive information. Data is protected from the point of swipe and through Heartland's processing network -- not just at certain points during the transaction flow," Bob Carr, Heartland's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a released statement. "We are making the highest degree of security available to every merchant regardless of size -- without charging extra monthly or transaction fees and taxes. Additionally, because E3 does not allow card numbers to exist on or through a merchant's system or network -- when combined with our Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) assistance services -- E3 reduces the cost of PCI compliance and the risk of non-compliance for business owners."
E3 features layers of security using both software and tamper-resistant hardware -- employing the Advanced Encryption Standard of encryption (AES) the most secure encryption algorithms available. E3 encrypts all Track 1 and 2 data from the card's magnetic stripe the moment it is converted from analog to digital data and enters a merchant's system as scrambled data ... never storing card numbers or passing them through the merchant's system or network, according to the company.
With E3, there are no changes to a merchant's daily routine or the speed of transactions -- and no large equipment investment, and E3 devices include EMV/chip card technology capabilities -- which may be coming to the United States -- and the ability to update encryption technology, according to Heartland.
Also, in the unlikely event of a data breach using E3, Heartland -- with its "E3 End-to-End Encryption Warranty" -- will reimburse a merchant's breach-related fines. If, during the warranty period on any particular Heartland E3 device, the device fails to prevent the unauthorized decryption of cardholder data on that particular device, and that failure is a result of a defect or error in Heartland's software or hardware, Heartland will pay the merchant the amount of compliance fines, fees and/or assessments the merchant pays to the card brands, issuing bank or acquiring bank, the company reported. Heartland will also pay the merchant any costs he/she pays for a directly related forensic audit conducted by a PCI-certified Qualified Incident Response Assessor.
"Heartland leveraged its unique experience and knowledge to develop E3 -- and made the financial investment needed to protect this sensitive information. Data is protected from the point of swipe and through Heartland's processing network -- not just at certain points during the transaction flow," Bob Carr, Heartland's chairman and chief executive officer, said in a released statement. "We are making the highest degree of security available to every merchant regardless of size -- without charging extra monthly or transaction fees and taxes. Additionally, because E3 does not allow card numbers to exist on or through a merchant's system or network -- when combined with our Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) assistance services -- E3 reduces the cost of PCI compliance and the risk of non-compliance for business owners."
E3 features layers of security using both software and tamper-resistant hardware -- employing the Advanced Encryption Standard of encryption (AES) the most secure encryption algorithms available. E3 encrypts all Track 1 and 2 data from the card's magnetic stripe the moment it is converted from analog to digital data and enters a merchant's system as scrambled data ... never storing card numbers or passing them through the merchant's system or network, according to the company.
With E3, there are no changes to a merchant's daily routine or the speed of transactions -- and no large equipment investment, and E3 devices include EMV/chip card technology capabilities -- which may be coming to the United States -- and the ability to update encryption technology, according to Heartland.
Also, in the unlikely event of a data breach using E3, Heartland -- with its "E3 End-to-End Encryption Warranty" -- will reimburse a merchant's breach-related fines. If, during the warranty period on any particular Heartland E3 device, the device fails to prevent the unauthorized decryption of cardholder data on that particular device, and that failure is a result of a defect or error in Heartland's software or hardware, Heartland will pay the merchant the amount of compliance fines, fees and/or assessments the merchant pays to the card brands, issuing bank or acquiring bank, the company reported. Heartland will also pay the merchant any costs he/she pays for a directly related forensic audit conducted by a PCI-certified Qualified Incident Response Assessor.