Why Software Developers Need to Make Payment Security their Top Priority

After the Equifax breach in September 2017 exposed the personal information of approximately 143 million Americans, the importance of protecting sensitive data was brought sharply into focus. Cyberattacks as of Q1 2018 have already resulted in 686 breaches and the theft of 1.4 billion records. The result of this turbulent digital security landscape – especially considering that identity theft accounts for 69% of all hacks – is that consumers lose their trust in affected businesses. It can take a single breach to negatively affect brand loyalty and profits significantly.  As Warren Buffet said ““It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”

Fortunately, with an integrated payments partner that offers point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization, you can keep customer data safe. What is P2PE, and how does it work?

The Beauty of Point-to-Point Encryption

Point-to-point encryption refers to the encryption of cardholder data from the instant the data is entered until it reaches the final point of processing at the financial institution.

1. Customer inputs personal data by swiping, inserting or keying their credit card at the point-of-sale.
2. Data is instantly encrypted at the point of entry.
3. The encrypted stream is sent to the financial institution to check available funds.
4. When funds are confirmed, the payment provider sends notification of payment.
5. For recurring payments, the seller receives an encrypted token instead of customer information.

With unreadable data that is sent between the moment of customer interaction and arrival at the financial institution, data stays inaccessible and secure. In the event that a criminal got a hold of the data it would be unusable.

With Paragon Payment Solutions, You’ve Got Nothing to Worry About

When you partner with us, you offer your customers secure payment solutions, and you protect your software’s trustworthy reputation.