Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Using Credit Card Tokenization

As a credit card user, one of the major areas of concerns is the security in regard to the credit card. If your credit card information has ever been misused, then you would have an idea about what I am talking about. As the standard security systems are getting outdated and outwitted by computer geniuses with a criminal bend of mind, the need for advanced security arrangements is felt with each passing day. Credit card tokenization is a great step in this regard.

Quite often companies fool themselves into believing that simple encryption is enough to keep them protected from breach into sensitive data. However, such a misconception is the worst thing that you can do to yourself. As it is, single encryption makes it very much easy for many criminals to make use of loopholes, to cause serious damage to you. Criminals can get hold of the encryption keys; and this would spell trouble for you.

Credit card tokenization is a very economic way of arranging for security. Instead of making heavy expenditure on costly hardware and software installs or upgrades, it is better to go for this cost effective means to help companies achieve PCI compliance. Most people would agree to it, that instead of opting for an on site storage system, which can easily be targeted by criminals, it would be far better to opt for a remote storage system. An efficient remote storage system, can very well help in handling the process of becoming PCI compliant, as well as keeping your customers' information safe.

It is mandatory for a company engaged in storing, processing, or transmitting credit card information, to be PCI compliant. The PCI DSS or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard imposes fines, penalties, and possibly the loss of authority to accept credit cards, in case if a company fails to meet the compliance standards.

In recent times, credit card tokenization has become an increasingly popular way of maintaining the security standards by the companies accepting credit cards. As it is, the main advantage of credit card tokenization is that, it allows you to process payments without having to store any sensitive data on your own system. In cases where data is required for conducting transactions, it allows this to take place quickly and effectively. This helps in maintaining complete security.

Credit card tokenization is rapidly becoming more and more popular; not due to PCIDSS, but because of the number of advantages, which it offers. Also users would know that their credit card information is in safe hands.

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