Trustwave and Transaction Network Services (TNS) have joined forces to offer an open and vendor agnostic point-to-point encryption service designed to help merchants protect their customers’ payment card information.
According to the 2013 Trustwave Global Security Report, cardholder data was the primary data type targeted by cybercriminals in 2012.
Persistently encrypting cardholder data renders it unreadable to unauthorised third parties, such as hackers, who try to steal sensitive information, such as credit card numbers. Encryption is another layer of defence against hackers or any unauthorised third party because even if the data is accessed they would be unable to read it.
As part of the relationship, TNS will host Trustwave Point-to-Point Encryption technology in its network and data centres enabling TNS to take encrypted transactions from merchants, decrypt those transactions, and securely send transaction data to one or more of a merchant’s payment processors or acquirers.
The joint service will be an open platform that will interoperate with point-of-sale technologies and integrate with various payment processors.
“Our role in the lifecycle of payment card data is to help keep it as safe as possible for the merchants and retailers we connect with the world’s banks, acquirers and processors,” says David Cronin, senior VP and GM of TNS’ Payments Division, Americas.
“Trustwave’s experience in data protection and PCI compliance combined with our global reach and payment processing technical capabilities creates the perfect recipe for effective data and cyber risk protection for businesses that process payment card information.”
“As a leader in compliance and information security, we are always looking for innovative ways to help payment processors, financial institutions and merchants protect their valuable data,” says Doug Klotnia, GM, Compliance and Risk Management at Trustwave.
“Since we will be connected to the TNS network, a network that reaches across a variety of platforms, we can expand our global reach to existing TNS and Trustwave customers as well as to new customers who are seeking better protection of their sensitive information.”
