No matter the size of yourbusiness, speed and efficiency is a must, especially when it comes to the customer’s ability to make a payment; your point of sales hardware and software, indeed, makes all the difference in one’s shopping or dining experience. And yet, an investment in a payment system must also be considered an investment in security. With fraud on the rise in 2017, there is no excuse for lacking the protocols and measures needed to ensure the safety of both the customer and the business. No matter the kind of account with which you may be dealing – either debit or credit – security must always be a primary concern.
Here are a few fundamental starting points for any responsible merchant keen on increasing the efficacy of their security procedures.
- Make the switch to EMV terminals – they have a meticulous two-step process of authentication, which is incredibly effective in staving off fraudsters. EMV was created by the three major companies which constitute its namesake (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa), each of which sought to create a new, higher standard for payment processing. And yet, it is not only larger companies who are able to provide the installation and maintenance of this technology for your business – smaller, and often more reliable and accessible companies, can easily meet your needs; for instance, you can easily chat with an expert and peruse the available plans and devices at https://www.swiftpayments.ca/ when you’re ready to make the change to an up-to-date and secure payment system.
First, EMV makes use of the information contained in the embedded microchips of credit and debit cards to authenticate exactly which account is entering into the transaction. Then, the EMV cardholder is required to verify that they are the proper owner of the card by entering their pin. These days, EMV terminals are commonplace, if not expected of merchants as a mode of protecting themselves and customers. And yet, this mode of security is a two-way street: not only must the merchant ameliorate their point-of-sale, or POS, terminals, but the customer must also be sure to have a compatible and up-to-date chip card.
- Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE), is an important advancement in the history of transaction security, and one that any merchant ought to use in the long-run. By rendering account data unreadable by the common criminal, P2PEsuspends and delegates customer account data elsewhere; because it cannot linger in the merchant’s domain, via encryption, the cardholder’s data is safe until it reaches its selected site of secure decryption; it is, in essence, unreadable and therefore unusable until the transaction is complete, making it useless for whatever criminal intent may be looming.
- Inspect your point of sales to avoid “card skimming.”Card skimming describes the unauthorized use of card-reading technology being layered, unbeknownst to business-owners, over pre-existing payment terminals, allowing criminals to capture card information upon swiping or inserting it. With the technological advancements, there is also the possibility of small, nearly undetectable cameras being installed to the premises to gather the pin information of your customers. It is therefore always necessary to maintain an organized and well-supervised area in which to complete your transactions.
As much as convenience factors in, it is, indeed, equally essential to maintain a sense of calm and reassurance if identity theft and monetary loss are to be effectively combated and, ultimately, prevented. Ensuring that the best possible security measures at the POS will protect your revenue, but more importantly, it will protect your reputation; it’s, doubtlessly, important to be proactive about the safety of your payment processes as soon as possible.