First Data Introduces the TransArmor Payment Card Security Solution

First Data Corp., a provider of electronic commerce and payment processing solutions, has introduced its TransArmor payment security service.

According to First Data, the TransArmor was developed to protect consumer payment card data from the moment it enters the merchant environment, and replaces card data with a token number that preserves the value of card data for merchant business operations but removes all value for fraudsters. As a result, merchants are able to significantly reduce the scope, risk, and costs associated with Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance without requiring new hardware or extensive changes to existing business processes.

"We believe the TransArmor solution sets the bar for the payments industry in securing card data and ease of use for the merchant community,” said Ed Labry, president of Retail and Alliance Services for Atlanta-based First Data. “We help businesses address the root cause of card data security issues by completely removing payment card data from their environment as we process the transaction. The TransArmor solution is the latest innovation in data security that First Data has brought to market as we continue to develop products centered on the needs of our customers."

First Data successfully completed a pilot in June 2010 that tested the TransArmor solution in a variety of merchant point-of-sale (POS) environments. During the pilot, more than 150 merchant locations processed card transactions using the TransArmor solution's blend of tokenization and encryption technologies. Factors assessed during the pilot were average latency time, which averaged less than one tenth of a second per transaction, and ease of implementation for merchant adopters, all of whom used existing POS terminals for the test.

The token’s features make it possible for merchants to continue to handle key business functions such as returns, recurring billing, loyalty programs and other analysis, without enabling card data to be used for fraudulent transactions. First Data provides a limited warranty against compromise of the token number in the event it is used to conduct a fraudulent transaction, and the TransArmor solution meets or exceeds all of Visa Inc's recently released Best Practices for card data tokenization.

For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.