From now on, card data will be even harder to steal

Whether you pay in a web-shop, at a store, or using your smartphone, from now on, it will be impossible for hackers to steal the data on your card. Belgian payment specialist Keyware will now offer a payment platform whose software as a whole has been awarded a security certificate. That will make it far cheaper for banks and card issuers to secure payments.

When you slip your card into a terminal or fill out your card details on a website, you're counting on the fact that only the retailer will be provided access to your account. And only for that specific payment transaction. But all existing platforms for secure payments have a single weak spot in common. While they're able to handle payments between the consumer's and the retailer's banks in no time at all, the data must also be verified in a database containing card data.

Hackers can pack it in

And those data are much sought after by hackers. Over three in four cases of payment data theft take place at the companies storing those card data. To be safe from those attacks, all technologies involved in sensitive data must meet the “PA DSS 3.1” standard. Keyware subsidiary Magellan's SET2U software is now one of the first in its segment to be awarded a PA DSS 3.1 certificate for its entire suite of payment and transaction applications.

Especially, the certificate for the technology makes "tokenization" a lot cheaper: many e-stores enable their customers to save their card data online, so that it's easier to check out the next time they shop. Thanks to the SET2U platform encryption, those data are completely secure. SET2U is a gateway to process payments: it receives payment instructions from everywhere and safely refers them to the right institution.

"What makes SET2U unique is that the payment data on the transaction server are processed in a way that makes reconstruction completely impossible, even with the most advanced technologies. And that goes for all possible payment transactions: online, cards, smartphones, etc. Whoever is operating the platform or even breaking into it will be unable to do anything with the information. And that makes the transaction completely safe."

Stéphane Vandervelde, CEO of Keyware

A lot safer, and still cheaper

As of the end of 2017, banks and card issuers will have to be able to provide the certificate for every bit of technology they use for the handling or storage of payment and fidelity cards. Because the complete SET2U payment platform has been certified as a whole, clients no longer need to take the entire investment upon themselves. Anonymizing the transaction data also offers clients the possibility of safe and responsible big data applications.

"Clients who integrate SET2U into their payment environments can get a technological and financial edge on their competitors. Keyware aims to offer the platform as SaaT (software as a transaction)."

Stéphane Vandervelde