First Data Introduces the TransArmor Payment Card Security Solution

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, today announced the public availability of the First Data^® TransArmor^SM solution. Starting today, the revolutionary payment security service is available to merchants of all sizes through First Data’s extensive network of resale partners. First Data anticipates that more than 100,000 merchants will be securely processing transactions with the TransArmor solution by the end of the year.

“We recently integrated the TransArmor solution with our TransAction + payments middleware product because it’s a truly unique and intuitive data security service that we believe will be invaluable to our clients who utilize either POSitouch or SAP POS solutions.”

The TransArmor solution fundamentally changes the way merchants secure and manage cardholder data. The service protects 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.

Merchant Pilot a Success

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 unique 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 TransArmor solution tokenized the very first commercial transaction over the STAR^® Network, a First Data company, at the Center of Science & Industry in Columbus, Ohio on Feb. 26, 2010. Breakers Motel in Grand Isle, La. also signed up for the TransArmor pilot in March and was impressed by the seamless integration.

“Protecting our customers’ payment card data is a priority for our business, but strong security can be a significant challenge to implement,” said Anna Janise, manager of Breakers Motel. “Adding the TransArmor service to our existing point of sale required almost no effort on our part, and didn’t impact our business operations. We’re more confident that the cards we accept stay safe, and most importantly, it keeps our focus on our customers, not on becoming security experts.”

Resale Partners Embrace the TransArmor Solution

Value-Added Resellers (VARs) including Data Business Systems, which focuses on both the full/quick service restaurant and retail industries, have been swift to connect the TransArmor solution to their POS software offerings.

“Security is essential to our customer base, and they want that security built-into products that run their business today,” said Robin Vaughan, chief technology officer at Data Business Systems. “We recently integrated the TransArmor solution with our TransAction + payments middleware product because it’s a truly unique and intuitive data security service that we believe will be invaluable to our clients who utilize either POSitouch or SAP POS solutions.”

Setting the Bar in Data Security

“We believe the TransArmor solution sets the bar for the payments industry in securing card data and ease of use for the merchant community. 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,” said Ed Labry, president of Retail and Alliance Services, First Data. “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.”

Leveraging the RSA SafeProxy^™ architecture, the TransArmor solution is engineered to encrypt and securely transport cardholder data to First Data and replaces it with a token as part of the transaction authorization process. Unique features of the token 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. The TransArmor solution meets or exceeds all of Visa Inc’s recently released Best Practices for card data tokenization.

“The release of the TransArmor solution is proof of how industry leaders can collaborate to address the essential needs of IT organizations,” said Art Coviello, president of RSA, which is the Security Division of EMC Corporation. “By building world-class security technology into the payment processing infrastructure, we can help significantly reduce the cost and effort of compliance and enable merchants to focus on innovations to better serve their customers.”

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About First Data

First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the aggregate data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.

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