Security Concerns Dominate Talk at Retail’s BIG Show

NEW YORK CITY -- In the wake of recent data breaches suffered by Target Corp. and The Neiman Marcus Group, security concerns dominated the conversation yesterday at Retail’s BIG Show: the 103rd annual NRF Convention & Expo, as exhibitors prominently displayed solutions intended to prevent future data breaches.

Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) guidelines were also much discussed, particularly in regards to whether its deadlines will be met. The guidelines call for fraud liability shifts from credit card providers to retailers in 2015 for in-store transactions, 2016 for most ATM transactions and 2017 for payments at the pump.

To accept new chip and signature debit and credit cards, convenience store retailers will need to upgrade their point-of-sale (POS) equipment. Because of the significant investment to upgrade such equipment, one exhibitor at the NRF Show told CSNews Online that the deadlines will likely be delayed.

However, other manufacturers believe the deadline dates will be kept, but acknowledged that many retailers will not upgrade their POS equipment before those dates and will therefore accept liability for fraudulent transactions until they do so.

While data breaches and EMV were discussed in detail during the New York City event, plenty of new products and partnerships were also announced at the trade show, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Here is a sampling of the announcements made:

  • Isis, the mobile commerce joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless, announced that Maverik Inc. will integrate its loyalty program with Isis’ mobile payment platform at 69 of its convenience stores. The mobile payment provider also told CSNews Online that CST Brands Inc. has been pleased with Isis’ performance both in-store and at the pump at several Corner Store locations in the Austin, Texas, market.
     
  • CradlePoint introduced AER 2100, an advanced router designed to intelligently manage wired and wireless connectivity. The company told CSNews Online that both Circle K Stores Inc. and United Oil Co. have been satisfied with their switches from DSL to 4G Internet connections using CradlePoint routers.
     
  • Duluth, Ga.-based NCR Corp. launched NCR Cloud Connect, which provides retailers access to the latest digital services on the market, allowing them to quickly and easily introduce next-generation retail services. The cloud-based ecosystem opens the door to a range of digital offerings, including online and mobile payments, digital coupons, rich content and big data analytics.
     
  • VeriFone Inc. had a number of on-trend products on display at the NRF event. In the hot-button security space, the company promoted its VeriShield Total Protect, which provides end-to-end encryption that couples with server-based tokenization to securely protect data from the point of capture to the processor.
     
  • NEC Corp. went high-tech with its latest product, offered for the first time in the United States. The TWINPOS 5500Fi object recognition solution is designed especially for retailers that sell fresh food. The product is sophisticated to the level that it can, for example, scan an apple and identify via pigmentation whether it is a Granny Smith or Red Delicious. It even can determine if the apple is organic, the company noted.
     
  • Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a first-time NRF expo exhibitor, showed off its Samsung ME95C, one of the world’s largest professional LED displays for retailers. In addition to this 95-inch television, Samsung also promoted its UD55D display for video wall instructions, as well as its Galaxy Note and Tab computer notebooks.
     
  • First Data Corp. displayed The Clover Station, a POS solution that has a touchscreen, card reader and receipt printer. It accepts a wide variety of payments, including credit and signature debit cards, as well as cash and checks.
     
  • KSS Retail, a dunnhumby company, launched Heartbeat, an out-of-stock detection solution. The product is intended to alert store personnel to spot-check and correct problems that might otherwise take hours or days to discover. This merchandising optimization solution helps retailers avoid both the costs of excess inventory and the lost opportunities caused by inadequate investment in stock, according to KSS Retail.
     
  • Cybera Inc., a provider of network and application security services, announced that it has reached 20,000 deployments of its Application Defined Network (ADN) payment solution. The Cybera One ADN solution provides customizable and specific security features for many retailers including gas stations operating under the Shell and ExxonMobil banners.
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