In an attempt to reign in fraud, companies providing security services have been active recently in joining forces with others in the business and in expanding their services.
    For example, AmbironTrustWave recently acquired Philadelphia-based Lucid Security, a provider of Intrusion Prevention System technology for an undisclosed price.
    In another business combination, MICROS Systems, Inc. and VeriFone Holdings, Inc. entered into a strategic alliance to arm the North American restaurant industry with an integrated pay-at-the-table solution that provides a more secure way to collect payments, improves operational efficiencies and supports the consumer shift to PIN debit.
    CyberSource Corp. is taking the risk of storing data out of merchants’ hands, an important development after the loss of personal information by financial institutions, ChoicePoint and the Verterans Administration.
    The new service enables eCommerce merchants to process electronic payments without the risk of storing or even handling sensitive account information. With CyberSource’s Payment Data Management, CyberSource, not the merchant, manages sensitive customer information such as credit card numbers and related transaction data.
    CyberSource handles and stores all payment data on behalf of the merchant in security-certified processing centers that connect directly with the banking network. As a result, consumer payment information is safer, merchant risk decreases, and merchant compliance with card association security rules can become simpler and faster.

Hosted payment acceptance and secure storage offered.

    Payment data management consists of two services, hosted payment acceptance and secure storage. Using hosted payment acceptance, merchants outsource the checkout page of their web store, allowing CyberSource to manage the acceptance and processing of the e-commerce transaction. When customers hit the buy button, CyberSource collects the actual payment data, processes the transaction, and securely stores the data for any subsequent payment action, such as a credit. Merchants never see or touch the sensitive payment data.
    Secure storage enables merchants to capture the e-commerce transaction as they normally do, using their own checkout page. However, after transmitting the data for processing, CyberSource stores the payment data on behalf of the merchant in PCI certified processing centers.
    Tighter integration of technologies is another way providers are attempting to provide better fraud protection.
    New Edge Networks recently established new network interconnections to Chase Paymentech Solutions, LLC. The new connections provide end- to-end compliance with Payment Card Industry security standards.
    Businesses such as convenience store and petroleum retailers whose PCI-compliant networks are powered by New Edge Networks can use the new redundant direct connections to Chase Paymentech at no added cost. This saves merchants the monthly communications charges for maintaining their own separate connections to their payment processors. Redundant connections also eliminate single points of failure at the merchants’ host locations or corporate headquarters.
    Direct connections are part of a New Edge Networks strategic initiative called ARNie, short for America’s Retail Network information exchange. New Edge Networks and Paymentech pioneered direct connections in March 2005. The original direct connections carried a mix of transactions traffic. The new connections are exclusive for PCI-compliant bankcard data traffic.
    Broadband connections typically speed up bankcard transactions up to 80 percent from about 15 seconds over dial-up connections to about three seconds over high-speed lines.
    MICROS will resell a full range of VeriFone customer-activated payment systems, including the new QX720 outdoor payment system, the Omni 7000 family and the multimedia-enabled MX870, in addition to the Vx 670. VeriFone’s new Vx 670 is the industry’s smallest all-in-one wireless handheld payment system that can be equipped with Wi-fi communications for pay at the table and carside service. The QX720 is an outdoor payment solution to further extend POS cashless transactions for convenience-oriented businesses that have drive-thru facilities, such as quick-service restaurants and pharmacies.
    Card associations are also strengthening their offering as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen data security. Visa U.S.A. recently expanded its fraud detection capabilities to include Plus ATM transactions. Under this new plan, Visa will be integrating the Visa Plus ATM network with the company’s primary authorization system allowing Visa’s Advanced Authorization technology to provide real- time fraud intelligence on every Plus ATM transaction. The systems integration is part of a broader strategy to enhance the Visa payment system and will occur in several phases through 2006 and 2007.
    Advanced Authorization provides an in-flight rating of each transaction’s potential for fraud to the financial institution that issued the card, including whether it was part of a reported data security compromise. Because this information is provided real-time, in less than two seconds, Visa expects Advanced Authorization to help reduce fraud losses and address PIN-based fraud at ATMs. Previously, ATM transactions were not scored by the Advanced Authorization system.